By Calvin Roberts
Like Pakistan the previous day, Malaysia completely dominated Holland sending them to a nine-wicket defeat in their second round clash of the CLICO International Under-15 Cricket Championships at the National Stadium, Providence yesterday.
After bowling out their opponents for 133 from 40.4 overs, Malaysia responded with 134-1 from 31.1 overs to complete their second victory in the League format of the competition and set up a top of the table clash with their Asian opponents at the same venue tomorrow.
Captain Keithan Goonasagaran with 57 and man-of-the-match, Zubair Asyraf, 58 both unbeaten, saw their team to a comfortable victory after Pavithren Nadaesan had earlier rocked the Dutch-speaking nation’s batting with 4-23.
The two batted positively aided by some confident running between the wickets and the only chance Holland had of separating the pair came in the 30th over when Asyraf after passing his 50, got a top edge off Paul Van Meekeren only to see Zachery Van Barren grassing the offer at short fine leg after Faizshal Niaz-Lyn had played across the line to a full length delivery from Meekeren and was given out lbw for two.
Asyraf then rubbed salt into the wound by pulling the next delivery exquisitely through back ward square leg for one of his seven boundaries.
The pair added 131 runs for the second wicket and for the pint-sized Asyraf,it wsa his second man-of-the-match award in two days.
Holland will now look to get past the America’s Development team tomorrow in order to avoid finishing at the bottom of the ladder in this group.
Meekeren with 1-42 was the successful bowler for Holland who had earlier won the toss and opted to take first strike on a wicket that was conducive for batting.
But their batsmen gifted their wickets away with some injudicious shots especially when well set for a big total.
They lost a wicket off the first ball that of Gruijters, who was palpably lbw to a delivery that swung in on him from Mohd Nazril.
However, a face-saving second wicket partnership of 56 runs from Jaap Dickman (24) and Stefan Ekelmans (26) helped restore some order in the batting.
Their susceptibility to spin bowling was however evident when spin was introduced in the eighth over following the withdrawal of Muhammad Ramdan who was removed from the attack due to dangerous bowling.
Dickman and Ekelmans displayed a positive running and batting attitude during their repair work for their team with the former taking a liking to the bowling of Pavithren Nadaesan (4-23) whom he struck for two fours in his second over.
Ekelmans (26) and Nick Wories (24) then added a further 41 runs for the third wicket before Ekelmans was bowled by Kamarul Anuar in the 28th over.
From there onwards, Holland’s batting fell away as they crumbled against the spin of Nadaesan to be bowled out for 133 from 40.4 overs.
Play will continue tomorrow with Pakistan taking on Malaysia at the National Stadium whilst Holland will oppose Americas Development at GCC, Bourda in the final round of matches.
