King in full control as West Indies clunch series
West Indies ODI tour The Netherlands
2nd One-Day International
Venue: VRA Cricket Club, Amstelveen
Result: West Indies won by 5 wickets
Player-of-the-Match: Brandon King
Scorecard: https://www.windiescricket.com/matches/211012/#scorecard
Brandon King’s career-best performance pulled West Indies out of trouble and guided them to a comfortable victory over the Netherlands, securing the series win with a match to spare. With the visitors under some pressure at 99-5 in the 24th over, King took over and made a polished 91 not out off 90 balls with nine fours and three sixes. This enabled the West Indies to reach their target of 215 with nearly five overs to spare at the VRA Ground on Thursday.
He was partnered by newcomer Keacy Carty who made an unbeaten 43 from 66 balls in his first international innings – as they added 118 in an unbroken sixth wicket partnership. Carty ended the match in grand style with a mighty maximum over midwicket, which brought cheer to the enthusiastic West Indies supporters who travelled to the scenic venue. The result, which followed Tuesday’s seven-wicket win, helped West Indies to earn valuable points in the ICC ODI Super League.
“We’re very happy. We came to Amsterdam to get victories, to be successful and I feel as if we’re doing a lot of right things,” said captain Nicholas Pooran. “Obviously it’s a game of cricket and you can’t have a perfect game all the time. When we were batting there, we had a little bit of a collapse but then we had a wonderful partnership in the end. And that’s what we want as a team. We want when batsmen are batting well, to stick it out there for the team and get the job done.”
King was the obvious win for the player-of-the-match award, as he followed up another top-quality performance of 58 not out which helped the team to their first win on Tuesday. He said afterwards:
“…wickets were falling around me, so I had to dig in and stay there for the team. Knowing that I was one of the last recognized batsman with Keacy, I knew we just had to stay. We weren’t chasing a big total, so we just had to keep it simple.”
Earlier in the day, West Indies bowlers, led by Akeal Hosein did a great job to restrict the side to just 214. Opener, Vikramjit Singh (46 off 58 balls) continued his impressive series with the bat. Max O’Dowd returned as his opening partner and scored 51. Scott Edwards came in at the fall of the first wicket and contributed an industrious 68 (89 balls) to the total, while only hitting one boundary.
However, the innings collapsed thereafter, with no other batsman reaching double figures. It was a disciplined bowling performance by the West Indies, with left-arm spinner Hosein achieving figures of 4-39 to become the leading wicket-taker in the world this year in this format. Fast bowler and Alzarri Joseph grabbed up 2-30 in his eight overs to again offer excellent support.
The West Indies claimed 10 more ICC ODI Super League points and have attained a 2-0 unassailable lead in the ongoing series. The third and final ODI will be at the same venue on Saturday, with the West Indies looking to clean-sweep the series.