Despite Ryan Cook’s side receiving plenty of plaudits, the Dutch have not won a single one of their nine Super League duels with world powers West Indies, England and Pakistan. Both the T20Is against New Zealand were lost. The Orange team qualified for the World Cup in Zimbabwe.

Pakistan batsmen failed to impose their will on the Dutch bowlers for the first time this week. Only four Pakistanis managed to reach double figures, including skipper Babar Azam’s 91.

Upcoming talent

Babar, who swapped shirts with his ‘comrade’ and fellow Ajax player Dusan Tadic on Friday’s visit to De Tokomst, fell victim to Aryan Dutt, who beat one of the world’s best batsmen with an ‘armball’. Dutt, a 19-year-old Indian-origin spinner born in the Netherlands, has had an excellent and instructive summer. Against the West Indies, he bowled the dreaded batsman Nicholas Pooran in all three games.

Dutt is one of the young players who has gained incredible experience against the top nations in world cricket this summer. All-rounder Bass de Leed (22), opener Vikram Singh (19), legspinner Sharis Ahmed (19) and left-arm spinner Tim Pringle (19) also showed a lot of improvement.

Wrong language

Paz de Leete was another star in the bowling. The all-rounder, who was reprimanded by the ICC for foul language after the second match against Pakistan, took three wickets. Viv Kingma was the most economical bowler in the Orange attack with 2 for 15 from five overs.

It is a shame that veteran batsman Max O’Dowd has been bowled out by the Pakistan pacers for the third time in a row. Musa Ahmed and Baz de Leete also quickly dropped their wickets, so Vikram Singh was only able to build a match when Tom Cooper joined him in the middle.

Shrinking chances of winning

Both brought the Netherlands back into the game. In fact, Singh got out after a beautiful 50, but over 6 overs, 172 for 5 and the in-form Cooper (62) and Teja Nidamanuru (24) sealed a historic win against the Asian powerhouse. Task to do: Orange needed a run a ball to win, with five wickets in hand.

But the Pakistani bowlers did not allow it. Five balls later, the Orange’s chances of victory dwindled after Naseem Shah grabbed Nidamanuru’s leg stump and Cooper swept the ball into Mohammad Wasim’s hands. The Dutch ‘tail’ was then quickly destroyed.