Netherlands vs England 2022: England crush Netherlands by 8 wickets and clinch the series 3-0; England climb to top of CWCSL table

The win takes England to the top of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League Standings with 125 points. Before the start of the series, England were third on the table with 95 points, but their flawless victory means they have leapfrogged Afghanistan and Bangladesh to the summit.

Jos Buttler walked out to the toss in the third and final ODI, indicating that there was at least one change to England XI. Sam Curran replaced the regular captain Eoin Morgan, while David Payne was handed his maiden cap, coming into the XI in place of Reece Topley.

Netherland too made changes – Fred Klaassen and Paul van Meekeren came in to the XI in place of Shane Snater and Vivian Kingma.

For the third time in as many games, Vikramjit Singh fell to the left-arm pace of David Willey. The opener was done by the short ball, falling in the fifth over of the innings.

Payne was robbed of his first wicket as Liam Livingstone lost the ball in the sun. The hosts made the most of the missed chance as Max O’Dowd and Tom Cooper counter-attacked the England bowlers to ensure they were going at a steady pace.

The pair added 72 runs for the second wicket before Brydon Carse struck to break the partnership. Max O’Dowd soon got to his fifty but fell to the spin of Livingstone just after getting to the milestone.

With both set batters back in the pavilion, the Netherlands had to rebuild. Scott Edwards and Bas de Leede took their time settling in. There was a drought of boundaries for 10 overs after O’Dowd’s wicket, but the pair kept the scoreboard ticking.

Just when the boundaries started to flow, Adil Rashid scalped de Leedem, shortly after he had completed his half-century.

De Leede’s scalp turned out to be a turning point in the game as England kept chipping away thereafter.

Teja Nidamanuru and Logan van Beek were back in the hut in consecutive overs. In an attempt to accelerate the scoring, four wickets fell in the last four overs as Netherlands went from 203/3 to 244 all out.

Payne got his maiden international wicket in the penultimate over by snaring Scott Edwards for 64 while Willey finished with a four-wicket haul.

Chasing 245 for the win, the England openers once again got their side off to a fiery start. Roy set the tone with consecutive boundaries off van Beek in the second over. It got worse for the Dutch bowler as Phil Salt got in on the act and plundered him for four boundaries in a single over.

The boundaries kept flowing in the Powerplay, but thereafter, there was some respite for the Netherlands as they scalped two wickets in three balls, including that of Salt, who was one run short of his half-century.

As it turned out, that was the only high point for the Netherlands’ bowlers on the day.

Look who’s back on top🔝

Here’s how the #CWCSL standings look after England sweep Netherlands 👉 https://t.co/NWcfSLnAbZ pic.twitter.com/8ITqUYA112

— ICC (@ICC) June 22, 2022

What followed was some brilliant display of power-hitting from Roy and Buttler. The latter smashed five boundaries in four overs to get going. At the other end, Roy got to his second fifty of the series.

Buttler slowed down as he reached his forties but Roy took over the scoring thereafter, taking down the bowlers with ease. Buttler got to his fifty in 46 balls and followed it up by smashing Paul van Meekeren for three sixes and a four in an over.

Roy found the ropes thrice in the next over and got to his 10th ODI century. Buttler finished it off in style with a six as England chased down the target with 119 balls to spare.