New Zealand captain stroked 140* earlier than bowlers rallied to bowl Netherlands out cheaply
New Zealand 264 for 9 (Latham 140*, van Beek 4-56, Klaassen 3-36) beat Netherlands 146 all out (de Leede 37, M Bracewell 3-13, Sodhi 2-17) by 118 runs
Vikramjit hit seven in his knock of 31, displaying an array of pictures within the course of: from the punch to the pull, from the slice to the slash. However as soon as he deposited a Colin de Grandhomme full toss – a slower supply bowled at 98kph – to long-on, the wheels quickly began to come back off for Netherlands.
What was 81 for two at one stage turned 146 all out, with Michael Bracewell grabbing three of the wickets to fall, two of these with an offspinner’s dream deliveries. He looped one up huge exterior off to lure Pieter Seelaar to drive, because the Netherlands captain acquired ahead solely to see the ball flip again in sharply to hit off stump.
Michael Bracewell continued coping with flight, dip and switch when he had Michael Rippon stumped off an similar supply, with Latham behind having on a regular basis on this planet to whip the bails off.
Nevertheless it was earlier within the day that Latham regularly dragged the sport away from the bowling aspect. Watching from the dressing room, he noticed Logan van Beek and Fred Klaassen rule with the ball after Netherlands had elected to bowl first on a brown-looking pitch.
Regardless of his aspect being in hassle, Latham stored ticking the scoreboard by rotating the strike in addition to putting the occasional boundary within the firm of de Grandhomme, who performed a extra sedate position. By the twenty third over, when the latter departed after a quick restoration for a 40-ball 16, Latham had already reached 37 off 42 balls, by no means permitting the Netherlands’ bowlers to capitalise on the momentum by being content material to simply see them off and holding one find yourself.
He subsequent acquired an in a position associate in Michael’s cousin Doug Bracewell, who took after a quiet begin of 9 from 23 deliveries. When he fell for a more-than-handy 41 off 51 balls within the fortieth over, New Zealand nonetheless had solely 179 on the board with simply three wickets remaining.
However Latham was in no temper to surrender. After having added 90 with Doug Bracewell, he placed on 42 with Ish Sodhi, racing to his sixth ODI hundred on the way in which, which got here from his one hundred and first supply. The final six overs yielded 61 for the hosts, with their captain urgent the accelerator by clobbering 5 sixes and a 4.
Who knew what sort of day his thirtieth birthday would grow to be?
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
