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Australia returned to the top of Group A, having beaten the Netherlands by 98 runs here in Southampton. Two points and a huge boost in net run rate took the six-time champions well clear of India, who will play South Africa on Sunday.
A flurry of batting aggression helped Australia match the World Cup record of 219 set by England in their opener against Sri Lanka. A spirited but limited Netherlands batting effort reached 121 for 3, meaning the only concern for the favourites was a minor back injury that led to Beth Mooney retiring hurt and stand down from keeping wicket.
This was a contest new and old. Australia’s only history against the Netherlands women’s team consisted of five ODIs played between 1988 and 2000. The margins of those wins were 10 wickets, 10 wickets, 115 runs, 173 runs, and 255 runs, so in this context, a loss by runs counted in double figures was some sort of progress.
More important has been the chance to play top teams again, if only for a couple of weeks. After regularly competing against top nations around the turn of the century, including playing their only Test match in 2007, the Netherlands dropped away from the top table. They are now in the first stages of making their way back via the newly expanded 12-team T20 World Cup.
A hard-fought qualification campaign makes them deserving participants, but the Netherlands draws a team of amateur players from a few hundred registered female cricketers, where Australia’s player pool must seem, by contrast, to be riches unimaginable.
In this context, it was bold of the Netherlands captain, Babette de Leede, to choose to bowl first, having done the same against India and conceding 209. On a heavily clouded morning with a 10.30am start, she reasoned her seamers had the best chance of getting something from the track by using it first.
Had they been more accurate, she may have been right. Iris Zwilling, Myrthe van Raad and Isabel van der Woning all look the part: tall right-armers with high actions who can bang the ball in. All are young and can improve. Challenged by Australia’s right-hand, left-hand opening combination, they lost their line, bowling short and leg-side often enough that Georgia Voll and Mooney did not need to be overly attacking to raise a 50 stand inside five overs.
Voll skewed a catch off Zwilling for 17, and Ellyse Perry immediately slogged the innocuous slow bowling of Heather Siegers to deep midwicket for one. Mooney and Ash Gardner slayed 101 in nine overs before Mooney chose the drinks break as her time to retire hurt on 74, struggling with a sore back after a long bus ride. Gardner holed out two balls later for 58, lofting Caroline de Lange to midwicket.
The leg-spinner would draw a catch from dismiss Nicola Carey, while Zwilling returned in the final over to have Georgia Wareham caught and to bowl Sophie Molineux, but runs flowed in between times, Wareham clobbering 41 from 18, while the efforts to restrict the scoring were unpicked strand by strand by a series of misfields uncharacteristic for a team whose ground fielding has been one of its strengths.
The inning was less of a stroll for Australia. With Mooney off the field and the emergency wicketkeeper, Phoebe Litchfield, already absent with a quad injury, Voll was pressed into service behind the stumps, and was delighted to hang on to an edge from Phebe Molkenboer that Voll caught crocodile style away to her right. Kim Garth added a second victim by trapping Siegers lbw, but that is where the wickets stopped.
The notional chase of 220 was never in play, but De Leede and Stere Kalis put on a partnership of 96, De Leede celebrating her 100th T20 international with a half-century and Kalis falling just short, but passing 2,000 T20I runs.
In a stand punctuated by shots through cover and accented by a straight six down the ground off Alana King, the pair showed they are players of quality despite being outmatched. Robine Rijke played her 100th match in the format, and got to join De Leede in the closing stages.
These are memories the players will treasure, at a World Cup they have craved. For Australia, the important thing was banking the result. For the Netherlands, the important thing was playing this match.
