On a sunny day at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Australia thrashed the Netherlands, winning by massive margin of 309 runs. Glenn Maxwell scored the fastest century (40 balls) in the history of World Cups. David Warner with the bat and Adam Zampa with the ball were the other star performers.
The Australians won the coin toss and chose to bat. Warner led the way with a fine hundred, while Steven Smith found some of his form back with a 62. Maxwell, on the other hand, delivered an outstanding performance. He came out to bat with the score reading 244 for 3 and cracked shots all over the park.
On the Dutch side, Logan van Beek turned out to be the best bowler on show, bagging four wickets. However, the rest of the bowlers had mostly a chastening experience. Bas de Leede, in particular, would want to erase this experience as he ended up conceding most runs (115) in ODIs.
When the Netherlands began their innings, they were in a tough spot right from the start. Their opening batsman, Vikramjit Singh, initially showed promise by striking the ball cleanly and finding the boundaries. However, as was the case in their previous matches, Singh struggled to convert his good start into a substantial score.
After the early flourish, the Dutch team found it extremely challenging to regain momentum. They lost wickets at regular intervals, which disrupted their rhythm and made it difficult for them to build a substantial partnership. The Australian fast bowlers seized the opportunity to showcase their dominance. Each of them chipped in with a wicket before the 20th over, highlighting their bowling prowess and control over the game.
As the game progressed past the 20th over, the stage was perfectly set for the Australian spinner, Zampa, to step in and weave his magic, and he did so with absolute finesse. He took 4 wickets while conceding a mere 8 runs. Scott Edwards tried to glue the Dutch innings together, but he didn’t get any support as the side folded up for just 90 runs.