HARARE, 3 Jul: Vikramjit Singh’s fiery maiden cent-ury and Wesley Barresi’s 97 helped Nether-lands keep their World Cup 2023 qualification hopes alive, with a 74-run win via DLS method against Oman, here on Monday.
Singh’s 110 off 109 balls and veteran Barresi’s quickfire 65-ball 97 powered the Netherlands to a mammoth 362 for seven in 48 overs. In reply, Ayaan Khan (105 off 92) led Oman’s response, but his effort went in vain.
Oman remained winless in the Super Six stage of the World Cup qualifier, suffering their fourth loss on the trot. The race for the second qualification spot is set to go down to the wire, though Netherlands require Zimba-bwe to lose against Scotland. The Dutch also need to win their final game to stand any chance of making it through.
Put into bat, Netherlands’ openers Singh and Max O’Dowd (35) made a patient start, including sitting through a rain delay that shortened the match to 48-overs-a-side affair.
The duo’s 117-run partnership was brought up off 103 balls before O’Dowd was cleaned up by Ayaan. Singh reached his maiden ODI century from 102 balls before he was eventually undone, holing out at mid-on. He hit 11 fours and two sixes.
Having scored 67 and 67 not out in his last two outings, Scott Edwards (4) was caught by Kaleemullah as Mohammad Nadeem claimed his second wicket.
With the Netherlands needing to improve their net run rate, Bas de Leede supercharged his side’s scoring, making a quickfire 39 from 19 balls with five fours and a six.
Having reached his half-century off 43 balls, the 39-year-old Barresi looked set for his second ODI ton but missed it by a whisker. His 97 off 65 balls included 10 fours and three sixes. In fact, Barresi’s was the first of three wickets in as many overs with Oman mounting a fightback.
Bilal Khan took 3/75 from his 10 overs while Moha-mmad Nadeem gave away 36 runs off his four overs for two wickets. Fayyaz Butt and Ayaan took one wicket each. In pursuit of what would have been their record successful chase, Oman lost regular wickets with Jatinder Singh run out on 17 before fellow opener Kashyap Prajapati departing for 25. (PTI)