Netherlands and Zimbabwe are ready to battle it out in the fifth game of the 2023 Men’s ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier. The game will be played at the Harare Sports Club on Tuesday, June 20. It will be interesting to see if the Netherlands can shake the ghosts of the past and take Zimbabwe down.
The Netherlands recently faced Zimbabwe in an ODI series during their tour of the rival nation in early 2023. They had a brilliant start to the series as they defeated Zimbabwe in a scintillating game, picking up the victory by three wickets.
A good innings from Clive Mandade , who scored 74 runs, helped Zimbabwe in setting up a respectable total of 249. However, the score just wasn’t enough to stop the Dutch players as a brilliant century from Teja Nidamanuru, including nine boundaries and three sixes, saw them win the game by three wickets.
The second ODI game was also a competitive affair with Zimbabwe narrowly beating out the Netherlands by a single run. Sean Williams was just relentless during Zimbabwe’s batting as he went on to score 77 runs, hitting an impressive 11 boundaries.
It was Mandade’s turn to shine as he went on score a half-century shortly before being dismissed by Van Meekeren. With 271 runs on the board, it was all on Zimbabwe’s bowling side to not throw the match away.
The Netherlands had a wonderful start to the game with Max O’Dowd and Tom Cooper scoring 81 and 74 runs, respectively. They had the momentum in their favour as they were on course for the win.
However, two wickets in two successive balls broke the back of the Dutch side as they lost the game by one run.
The third game of the series had a much more dominant performance from Zimbabwe as they crushed the Netherlands by seven wickets. Another good performance by Sean Williams saw him take three wickets holding off the Netherlands to a total of 239 runs.
The Zimbabwe batters did not slow down either as they went on to finish the game within 41 overs and four balls. Zimbabwe also defeated Nepal in their first World Cup Qualifier game. They will now head into the match against their Dutch opponents as the clear favourites.
ZIM vs NED Dream11 Prediction
Captain: Sikandar Raza
Vice-captain: Wesley Madhevere
Wicketkeeper: Clive Mandade
Batters: Max O’Dowd, CR Ervine, TLW Cooper
All-rounders: Sikandar Raza, Wesley Madhevere, SC Williams
Bowlers: Shariz Ahmad, Fred Klaassen, Paul Van Meekeren, Wellington Masakadza
ZIM vs NED Probable XIs
Zimbabwe Probable XI: CR Ervine (c), GS Ballance, Sikandar Raza, RP Burl, W Madhevere, SC Williams, B Evans, Clive Madande (wk), Wellington Masakadza, TL Chatara, B Muzarabani
Netherlands Probable XI: Musa Ahmed, TLW Cooper, Max O’Dowd, Colin Ackermann, Vikramjit Singh, R Klein, S Edwards (c and wk), AT Nidamanuru, Shariz Ahmad, Fred Klaassen, PA van Meekeren
ZIM vs NED Full Squad
Zimbabwe: Craig Ervine (c), Sikandar Raza, Ryan Ponsonby Burl, Blessing Muzarabani, Innocent Kaia, Tendai Chatara, Luke Jongwe, Wesley Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), CLive Madande(wk), Sean Williams, Wellington Masakadza, Richard Ngarava, Joylord Gumbie (wk), Brad Evans
Netherlands: Scott Edwards (C)(Wk), Wesley Barresi (Wk), Noah Croes (Wk), Max O’Dowd, Teja Nidamanuru, Vikramjit Singh, Bas de Leede, Michael Levitt, Saqib Zulfiqar, Shariz Ahmad, Aryan Dutt, Clayton Floyd , Logan van Beek, Ryan Klein, Vivian Kingma