John Polack
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Namibia v Netherlands at Toronto (TCSCC), 15 Jul 2001 John Polack |
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Netherlands innings:
Namibia innings: |
But how else to describe the Netherlands' come-from-the-clouds two wicket win from the very final delivery of today's ICC Trophy Final against Namibia here in Toronto? And where to look for answers as to how a Namibian team so completely lost its way in the dying stages in its fielding: a facet of the game in which it has been so strong throughout this competition.
As Jacob Jan Esmeijer (58*) somehow swung the Netherlands to victory from the depths of despair at 106/6 as it chased a target of 196 to win, there were two dropped catches, a series of misfields, two missed run outs and then an horrendous end to it all for Namibia as its opponents sought three runs to win from the last delivery.
An Esmeijer glance at a Bjorn Kotze ball down the leg side should have come to rest in the hands of the man inside the circle at fine leg as it rolled toward him. Instead, Riaan Walters dived over it, was forced into a chase and, by the time he re-gathered it from its new resting place fifteen metres short of the boundary, the batsmen were madly scrambling back for the third.
Against the backdrop of a setting Toronto sun and the sight of the remainder of the Netherlands' players rushing in delirious triumph on to the field, the Namibians could only look on in horror. It was a simply unbelievable finish.
A full report of all the day's dramatic events will follow.
The third Netherlands wicket fell in the twelfth over, opener Robert van Oosterom (13) succumbing to a brilliantly conceived run out. The right hander had steered a Rudi van Vuuren (2/13) delivery to the right of Bjorn Kotze at third man and turned quickly at the non-striker's end to take advantage of the second run that had initially appeared to be on offer from the stroke. He had not figured on an excellent slide and save from Kotze, however, and was beaten home even though wicketkeeper Melt van Schoor was forced to move some distance away from the stumps to gather in the rapidly thrown return.
For a period of 41 minutes, middle order players Klass van Noortwijk (25*) and Tim de Leede (16) then opted for the most part to dig in and avert any further breaches of the Dutch line-up, albeit that the required run rate began to head toward dangerously large proportions in the process.
Namibian captain Daniel Keulder's reply was largely to set strong off side fields, sending sweepers back at cover point and extra cover and another at third man at different times. Inside the circle, the off side contingent was also strong and the fall of the fourth wicket - to a catch at point - therefore almost had something of an air of inevitability about it.
That setback for the Netherlands came as de Leede drove at an outswinger from Burton van Rooi (1/19) and failed to middle the stroke, instead sending the ball off a thick outside edge to Louis Burger who was able to complete a nice overhead catch.
Van Vuuren's adherence to relentless line and length has been the hallmark of his bowling throughout the tournament and there has been simply no let-up this afternoon in his excellent five over burst from the Southern End. In steamy conditions, his line has been unerring, his length consistent, and he has attained noticeable movement off the seam. There was a vociferous lbw appeal from as early as his third ball and wickets then fell from his seventh and eighth deliveries: opener Zulfiqar Ahmed (6) perishing when he clipped a catch low and to Gavin Murgatroyd's left at mid wicket and Roger Bradley (0) departing when Umpire Eddie Nicholls adjudged that he had been struck in front of his stumps by an excellently aimed yorker of sharp pace.
Well supported by the stringy Bjorn Kotze (0/10) at the other end in a characteristically miserly Namibian new ball performance, the burly right armer has duly applied a tight clamp on the Dutchmen's rate of progress through these early stages of the chase. Ahmed crashed one Kotze delivery powerfully to the cover fence in the third over of the innings but otherwise there has been only one other boundary off the bat (courtesy of a streaky edge) and precious few strokes have even been struck beyond the infield. The Namibian fielding has again been excellent, several fine saves perhaps best exemplified by a magnificent effort at full stretch to his right by Burton van Rooi at extra cover in the ninth over.
In many ways nonetheless, the Final could probably not be much better positioned at lunch time. Its attainment of very few big totals over the last three weeks mean that question marks still hang over the quality of the Netherlands' batting line-up. And also lurking in the back of most of the players' minds will likely be the fact that the Namibians have successfully defended targets no fewer than five times already in this competition.
Through the morning session on another warm and sunny day, it was something of an innings of fits and starts for the batting team. There were two fine stands - one of 54 runs for the second wicket between JB Burger (38) and Daniel Keulder (24) and another of 60 for the fourth wicket between Gavin Murgatroyd (50) and Deon Kotze (28) - but wickets continued to fall at almost exactly the wrong moments and the scoring rate only nudged four runs per over for the first time in its dying stages.
Murgatroyd proved the mainstay but not a single batsman truly dominated an honest and hard-working attack. It was certainly a measure of the nature in which the innings seemed merely but to drift along in its middle stages that, after applying himself resolutely to his job, even Murgatroyd himself lost his wicket after a bad lapse in concentration that led to the spooned drive of an innocuous-looking Lefebvre delivery to mid on.
In the last match of his fifth ICC Trophy campaign, it was the 38-year old Lefebvre (2/42) who was the shining light for the Netherlands. His effort with the ball was typically near-faultless, remorseless line and length frustrating a series of batsmen. He broke two vital stands, and produced a run out and a catch through three hours during which he rarely failed to keep himself in the action. On a field showing the signs of several weeks of baking sunshine, he also set his fields intelligently and it was a tribute to his control over matters as Netherlands captain that only seventeen boundaries were scored in total in the innings.
There is already a crowd of a few hundred here (most of them congregating under the shaded cover of trees square of the wicket on both sides of the ground) and that number is continuing to grow steadily as people filter through the gates of this exclusive establishment in Toronto's east. They await another interesting afternoon of action on the day when a new ICC Trophy champion will be crowned.
The Dutchmen had opened the match in near-perfect style by claiming the wicket of rival opener Riaan Walters (6) in the very first over but then endured a difficult hour as JB Burger (38) and Daniel Keulder (24) embarked on a stout rebuilding mission.
Burger provided significant nuisance value, his patience at weathering metronomic line and length slowly paying off as misdirected deliveries grew in number. There were several eye-catching strokes in his innings and a mixture of work off both the front and back foot as he sought to break up the length of the attack. None was more noticeable than a forcefully straight driven six off the bowling of Asim Khan in the fifteenth over but a number of sweetly timed cuts and glances also figured prominently.
Keulder had played a more restrained innings, content to defend for the most part and collect his runs almost exclusively from singles. But the plan went awry in the twenty-fourth over as he attempted to honour the tactic once too often. An on drive at the bowling of Tim de Leede travelled quickly to Lefebvre and an excellent direct hit from a distance of around twenty metres convincingly beat him home.
Bowling off around a twenty metre run-up, Lefebvre operates at healthy medium pace and rarely strays from an off stump line. It had therefore been little surprise to see his first ball pitch on exactly that path and fractionally short of a driveable length. For one of the few times in his innings, Burger was neither forward nor back in response, shuffling marginally across his crease and failing to defend the ball successfully into the off side.
After conceding 54 runs to Burger and Keulder in their doughty second wicket stand, the Netherlands' bowlers have now slowly worked their way back on top. In recent overs, ball has started to beat the bat as regularly as it did in the game's opening overs, a number of errant drives at deliveries just outside the line of off stump featuring. The fielding also continues to be sound, albeit that one run out opportunity was missed by Klass van Noortwijk at cover when Burger's score was on 37.
There had also been an anxious moment for Keulder in the twentieth over when he played a delivery of good length from Luuk van Troost off a thick leading edge. Fortunately for the Namibians, the ball looped just over a frustrated bowler's head.
On a pitch at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club that again looks tailor-made for strokemakers, Walters' early departure was a major surprise. He has been a revelation in this tournament and one of the major forces behind the Africans' rise to the status of finalists after they had initially been seeded into the lowly depths of Division Two.
It was paceman Asim Khan who made the breakthrough, angling in an off cutter at Walters' middle and off stumps and beating a forward defensive push in the very first over of the game.
The Netherlands' bowlers and fieldsmen have made a typically determined beginning, complementing accurate line and consistent length from Khan (1/20) and new ball partner Sebastiaan Gokke (0/12) with enthusiastic fielding. There have already been several fine sliding saves inside the thirty metre circle and another on the third man boundary. A run out chance was also only narrowly missed as Jacob Jan Esmeijer fired a throw at the bowler's end stumps as Keulder (then on 3) pushed a ball to backward point and rather unwisely set off with the stroke.
Opportunities for the batsmen to pierce the tightly set field have been few and far between to date, the best chances coming in the seventh and ninth overs respectively when Burger lifted a rare leg stump half volley from Khan powerfully over mid wicket and then straight drove forcefully all the way to the rope.
All lies in wait at a sun-drenched Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club as the Netherlands and Namibia prepare to contest the ICC Trophy tournament Final of 2001.
In a sense, this is not a typical Final; if anything, it's something of a celebration of each of these teams' already-secured passages to the World Cup of 2003. But there's still potentially much in store for the crowd of a few hundred people already banked around this impressive complex.
Having made no change to the team which defeated Scotland in a virtual semi final on Friday, and having won the toss and elected to adhere to the philosophy of batting first which has served it so well in this tournament, Namibia will enter the match in confident mood.
For the Netherlands, meanwhile, the build-up has been a quieter one. Having sealed their World Cup spot as long ago as Thursday, there have been opportunities for some of the key players in the side to overcome niggling injuries. There have been two changes to the side which took the field in their last match: captain Roland Lefebvre and Asim Khan returning to the eleven at the expense of Adeel Raja and Henk Mol.
CricInfo will provide live ball-by-ball commentary and live reports throughout the match.
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Date-stamped : 16 Jul2001 - 02:36