Michael lewitt

Arun Jaitley Stadium: When Bas de Leede entered the Netherlands bowling attack, Namibia were cruising at 94/2 in 12 overs on a sticky pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton was at 38 off 33 balls, while captain Gerhard Erasmus looked dangerous in hammering 18 off eight balls – 16 of which came in the previous over off Timm van der Gugten.

It was upto de Leede to try and give Netherlands the breakthrough. On his second ball in the game, de Leede justified that call when on his short of length ball, Erasmus didn’t get the required elevation and was caught by a jumping mid-wicket. In his next over, de Leede again had a big wicket – a back of a length ball on off stump cramped JJ Smit, another dangerous striker of the ball while playing the late cut and could only see the top of the stumps being clipped.

De Leede’s spell of 2-9 in two overs was like the jabs of a boxer landing well in a bout, as Namibia ended at a below-par 156/8. It also helped that his match-up against right-handed batters worked well by astute bowling rotation from skipper Scott Edwards. It wasn’t to be the first time in the morning game when de Leede gave Netherlands a slight upper hand.