Amstelveen: Jason Roy’s unbeaten century (101 not out off 86) helped England register a comfortable eight-wicket win in the third ODI and complete a 3-0 sweep of the Netherlands at the VRA Cricket Ground, here on Wednesday.
The win took England to the top of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League Standings with 125 points. Before the start of the series, England were third on the table with 95 points, but their flawless victory means they have leapfrogged Afghanistan and Bangladesh to the summit.
Chasing 245 for the win, the England openers once again got their side off to a fiery start. Roy set the tone with consecutive boundaries off van Beek in the second over. It got worse for the Dutch bowler as Phil Salt got in on the act and plundered him for four boundaries in a single over.
The boundaries kept flowing in the Powerplay, but thereafter, there was some respite for the Netherlands as they scalped two wickets in three balls, including that of Salt, who was one run short of his half-century.
From there on, Roy and Jos Buttler produced a brilliant display of power-hitting. Buttler smashed five boundaries in four overs to get going. At the other end, Roy got to his second fifty of the series.
Buttler slowed down as he reached his forties but Roy took over the scoring thereafter, taking down the bowlers with ease. Buttler got to his fifty in 46 balls and followed it up by smashing Paul van Meekeren for three sixes and a four in an over.
Roy found the ropes thrice in the next over and got to his 10th ODI century. Buttler finished it off in style with a six as England chased down the target with 119 balls to spare.
Earlier, put into bat first, Netherlands opener Vikramjit Singh fell to the left-arm pace of David Willey. Singh was done by the short ball, falling in the fifth over of the innings.
Payne was robbed of his first wicket as Liam Livingstone lost the ball in the sun. The hosts made the most of the missed chance as Max O’Dowd and Tom Cooper counter-attacked the England bowlers to ensure they were going at a steady pace.
The pair added 72 runs for the second wicket before Brydon Carse struck to break the partnership. Max O’Dowd soon got to his fifty but fell to the spin of Livingstone just after getting to the milestone.
With both set batters back in the pavilion, the Netherlands had to rebuild. Scott Edwards and Bas de Leede took their time settling in. There was a drought of boundaries for 10 overs after O’Dowd’s wicket, but the pair kept the scoreboard ticking.
Just when the boundaries started to flow, Adil Rashid scalped de Leedem, shortly after he had completed his half-century. De Leede’s scalp turned out to be a turning point in the game as England kept chipping away thereafter.
Teja Nidamanuru and Logan van Beek were back in the hut in consecutive overs. In an attempt to accelerate the scoring, four wickets fell in the last four overs as Netherlands went from 203/3 to 244 all out. Payne got his maiden international wicket in the penultimate over by snaring Scott Edwards for 64 while Willey finished with a four-wicket haul.
Brief scores: Netherlands 244 in 49.2 overs (Scott Edwards 64; David Willey 4/36) lost to England 248/2 in 30.1 overs (Jason Roy 101 not out, Jos Buttler 86 not out) by 8 wickets
–IANS