Stand-in captain Scott Edwards spearheaded a recovery for the Netherlands after they threatened to sink without trace against England, who have been set 236 to win this one-day international series.
With Pieter Seelaar’s sore back ruling him out of contention, Edwards took charge of the Dutch and elected to bat first, perhaps influenced by England’s world record 498 for four 48 hours earlier.
In a contest reduced to 41 overs per side at Amstelveen, the Netherlands slipped to 36 for three but Edwards, who was given out on one but overturned the lbw decision, thumped 78 off 73 balls in his side’s 235 for seven in this second and penultimate ODI.
Edwards swept well against the spin trio of Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone and reached his half-century with a fantastic straight six off Brydon Carse, who otherwise impressed after being brought in as England’s only change from Friday, replacing Sam Curran.
Edwards displayed his inventiveness with a reverse ramp off David Willey, who had his revenge by running out the batter to add to his two for 46 with the ball and one catch in the field.
Rashid also claimed a brace of wickets while there was one apiece for Carse and Livingstone and England will fancy their chances of moving into an unassailable 2-0 lead after their most recent batting heroics.
There was a near three-hour delay to the start of this match – Jason Roy’s 100th ODI and Jos Buttler’s 150th – because of overnight rain and a stubborn wet patch next to the pitch caused by the covers being blown away during a shower.
An initially sluggish outfield meant the Dutch openers found scoring tricky and they both perished with cross-batted shots, Vikramjit Singh surprised by Willey’s short ball and miscuing a pull while Dawid Malan sprung to take a fine catch at square leg after Max O’Dowd had swept hard at Rashid.
Carse was touching 90mph and pinned Tom Cooper in front shortly after he had become just the fifth Dutch batter to 1,000 ODI runs.
He wisely elected not to review but Edwards sent an lbw review upstairs after playing all around a Rashid delivery and was vindicated when technology showed the ball would have missed off-stump.
While Carse’s express pace initially troubled Bas de Leede and Edwards, the pair swept with authority. De Leede shattered a window pane in the press box with a full-blooded swing off Rashid but, in attempting another six, thumped Livingstone straight in the air to depart for 34 just after halfway.
Edwards was able to milk the expensive Moeen and slogged Livingstone over deep midwicket for his first six. He was increasingly growing in confidence, evidenced by a sizzling hit off the returning Carse which took him to a 55-ball half-century.
An audacious reverse ramp off Willey put pressure back on to England but the left-armer bowled his partner Teja Nidamanuru for 28 before a superb pick up and throw at midwicket led to Edwards being short of his crease.
Logan van Beek started cautiously, with just eight off 23 balls, but finished unbeaten on 30 off 36 balls courtesy of a massive straight heave off Rashid before doing likewise off Willey’s final ball, ending the innings with a flourish.
