World Champion status may have ended up in the bin but, ahem, European bragging rights belong to England. An incendiary century from Ben Stokes helped brush aside the Netherlands for a 160-run victory in Pune that lifted Jos Buttler’s men off the bottom of the World Cup table - not that the dyke didn’t threaten to once again burst along the way.
Could England sink any lower against one of the Low Countries? It was the question being asked before this basement battle and for an hour it looked eminently possible. Batting first after winning the toss, a hideous, self-inflicted collapse turned 133 for one from 20 overs into a troubling 192 for six by the 36th, with Buttler, a captain looking increasingly bereft, among those adding to England’s hall of shame in this failed campaign.
Stokes was plugging the leak at the other end, however, and with Chris Woakes at No 8 eventually offering the kind of base-level competency absent from a couple of others with a 45-ball 51, England’s talisman fired.
He ransacked 108 from 84 balls to pass 10,000 international runs across all formats and help post 339 for nine, a target that proved beyond the capabilities of a side that felled Bangladesh and South Africa by setting a target. Though the Dutch were 179 all out in 37.2 overs, despite two drops from an England side that previously had fielding as its one area in credit, this was over at the halfway stage.
With pressure building for England’s leadership pairing of Buttler and Matthew Mott, the head coach, the result took them to seventh – now ahead of the bottom three on net run-rate – and released the safety valve a touch.
There is still a game to go against semi-final chasers Pakistan at Kolkata’s mighty Eden Gardens on Saturday, however, and a top-eight finish for a spot in the 2025 Champions Trophy could well need a third victory. Lose and what has been something of a rolling post-mortem will resume.
Buttler must have wondered if it was set to continue unbroken when he meekly chipped Paul van Meekeren to mid off for five during a mid-innings collapse of five for 59. While Jonny Bairstow again fell early, Dawid Malan had purred his way to 87 from 74 balls and looked on for his second century of the campaign. But moments after Joe Root was bowled through his legs for 28 attempting to reverse scoop the previously profligate Logan van Beek, Malan was run out and the Netherlands sensed their chance.
Both dismissals felt emblematic of England’s time in India. Root’s shot was a combination of pre-meditated and somehow late, continuing his flatlining form, while Malan’s demise, though coming via a sharp throw from Van Beek at cover point and velvet glovework from Scott Edwards, was utterly self-inflicted. But there were some more contenders to come.
Harry Brook was back off the bench but, like the man he replaced, Liam Livingstone, not back in the runs as a smart short ball from Bas de Leede was top-edged to deep square on 11. And after Buttler’s sad eyes returned – the captain now averages 13 in this tournament – Moeen Ali added to his own argument that his and a few other 50-over careers should soon end, handing spinner Aryan Dutt a second wicket with a one-handed loft to long on.
Stokes was 36 off 44 at this stage but after bringing up his half-century with hulking six, he went into overdrive and the Netherlands, much like Afghanistan during Glenn Maxwell’s hall-of-fame double century in Mumbai the night before, fell apart somewhat. The second 50 of a 78-ball hundred brought up with a reverse swept four came off just 20 balls, Stokes rediscovering his beast mode to clear the ropes with six sixes. If this fifth ODI century proves his last – re-retirement feels likely – it was a decent nod to the good times.
This being Stokes, it featured a good deal of grimacing along the way, both from the knee injury that is booked in for an imminent operation and an inside edge that cannoned into his nether regions. There was also one possible reprieve, Dutt convinced he had his man lbw for 84 only for the on-field “not out” and a mere tremor on snicko to deny him. It may well have been glove on pad that caused this but it was inconclusive, Stokes launching Dutt’s head-high follow-up for six in a 45th over that reaped 24 runs.
Back in the day job, having been ice cool with the bat before his own late flourish, Woakes began the succession of wickets that undermined the Dutch chase by removing Max O’Dowd in the fifth over. David Willey helped himself to a brace of dismissals ahead of his final England appearance this weekend, before the run out of Wesley Barresi and three wickets apiece for Adil Rashid and Moeen doused the rest. Teja Nidamanuru, hitting three sixes in a top score of 41 from No 7, will wish he had a Woakes of his own.
Still, the Netherlands will leave this tournament with heads held high. England, while now in the driving seat to at least claim a consolation prize, can scarcely say the same.
