2. Scott Edwards
313 runs at 78.25 and 113 SR, 10 catches
Captain Scott Edwards led his depleted Dutch side admirably through the Qualifier. One of the most prolific sweepers in the international game, he employed his full range of sweeps, reverse sweeps and scoops to great effect here, racking up 313 runs in the process. Edwards was a solid rock in the Dutch middle order and scores of 83, 67*, 67, 67*, 4 and 25 highlighted his consistency with the bat. Furthermore, he showed off his ability to change gears quickly, scoring the runs at a brisk strike rate of 113.
Most impressively, Edwards’ keeping and decision making were also top notch. It’s easy to forget that he was thrust into the captaincy role in mid 2022, after the sudden retirement of talismanic skipper Pieter Seelaar. Since then, he has overseen what is arguably Dutch cricket’s most successful era with automatic qualification to the 2024 T20 World Cup followed by this shock qualification to the ten team ODI World Cup. In a country where cricket is a niche sport with low participation numbers (around 6,500) and struggles for mainstream attention, it’s hard to understate what a monumental achievement this is.
3. Logan van Beek
10 wickets at 32.20 and 55 runs at 27.50
Logan van Beek was the leader of the Dutch pace attack in the absence of regulars van Meekeren, Klaassen and Glover. While Bas de Leede overshadowed him in the bowling department, van Beek still provided decent pace and bounce upfront to keep batters in check. His two best bowling performances came against Nepal and Sri Lanka where he returned figures of 4/24 and 3/26 respectively.
However, it was his heroics in the Super Over vs West Indies which fans will most remember from the tournament. After Scott Edwards and Teja Nidamanuru had rescued Netherlands from a seemingly hopeless situation with a 143 run partnership, they both departed in consecutive overs to leave the Dutch still requiring 48 runs from 24 balls to win the game. Enter van Beek who hit a quickfire cameo of 28 (14) to first tie the match.
Then sent out to bat in the ensuing super over, van Beek went absolutely berserk, clobbering Jason Holder for 4,6,4,6,6,4 in consecutive deliveries. The thirty runs scored made it the most productive super over in the history of white ball cricket. Incredibly, van Beek then backed up his batting heroics with the ball in hand, conceding only eight runs and picking up two Windies wickets. This was easily the greatest super over performance in the history of international cricket and allowed Netherlands to take two crucial points through to the Super Six stage.
