The Netherlands defeated hosts Zimbabwe by three wickets to take a one-nil lead in the series. Chasing 250 for victory in the first of three ODIs, Netherlands were staring down the barrel at 110 for 6 in the 32nd over before Nidamanuru first wove partnerships with Shariz Ahmadand Paul van Meekeren and then finished off the game with some fireworks. Nidamanuru walked in after Richard Ngarava and Wellington Masakadza had dismantled Netherlands’ top order.
Colin Ackermann was still there, though, and put up a 46-run stand with Nidamanuru, but Masakadza knocked Ackermann over for 50 in his final over. It was the bottom few left then, and Nidamanuru and Shariz picked up a boundary each in the first ten balls of their partnership before a quiet period left Netherlands needing 108 off 72 balls. They found the odd boundary, and Nidamaduru went past 50, but it wasn’t till the 43th over that things started to get a bit desperate. The Netherlands men’s team is on a tour of Zimbabwe where the visiting team will play next two-match ODI series against the host’s Zimbabwe.
Scott Edwards will lead the Netherlands team in the three-match series, while hosts Zimbabwe will be led by Craig Irwin. The second match of the series between the two teams will be played on March 23, while the third and final one-day match will be played on March 25.
Teams:
Zimbabwe (ZIM): Innocent Kaia, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Craig Ervine (c), Gary Ballance, Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl, Clive Madande (wk), Brad Evans, Richard Ngarava, Tendai Chatara, Blessing Muzarabani
Netherlands (NED):
Vikramjit Singh, Max O’Dowd, Musa Ahmed, Bas de Leede, Tom Cooper, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Teja Nidamanuru, Roelof van der Merwe, Brandon Glover, Shariz Ahmad, Vivian Kingma.
Wasim Qadri, Islamabad based Senior Journalist and Host Television show can follow on Twitter at @jaranwaliya
Post published in: Cricket