12th over: England 82-1 (Salt 46, Malan 25) Bas de Leede starts off better, bowls one wide but then three dots on the spin, tight on the off stump line, and then has Salt dropped. Slips the ball wider, Salt cuts hard to Snater at deep point, and the opening bowler lets the flat hard shot burst through his hands. Not easy but basic enough. Salt takes two runs, then follows up by clouting four through mid on.
11th over: England 75-1 (Salt 40, Malan 25) One out of the lucky dip for Malan, who misses a reverse sweep but sufficiently distracts the keeper that the ball goes through for four byes. Four singles follow from the Seelar over. The spinner has already bowled three.
10th over: England 67-1 (Salt 38, Malan 23) Bas de Leede comes on to bowl, being talked up by… I’m going to guess that’s Peter Borren on commentary? New Zealand accent with a deep knowledge of Dutch players. Down leg goes de Leede with his first ball, then hits the angle across the lefty nicely after that. Schrodinger’s Borren says that de Leede can top 140 clicks when at his best. Only five from the bat in the over, but add three wides to that – one of them a stinker of a call from umpire Paul Reiffel after Malan moves across to the off side. So many umpires fail to adjudicate that law correctly.
9th over: England 59-1 (Salt 35, Malan 21) Here goes Malan. First ball of the Seelar over, he flights the ball and England’s number three walks down and lifts it straight, Matthew Hayden style. There’s a sizeable delay as about 12 helpers dig around in the bushes trying to find the ball. Only singles to follow, and nine from the over seems a bit of an escape for Seelar.
8th over: England 50-1 (Salt 34, Malan 13) Snater carries on, a tidy line, and again its Malan picking off a single and Salt finding the rope, this time hitting hard down the ground to the on side of straight. There’s the first team milestone.
7th over: England 44-1 (Salt 29, Malan 12) Thanks Tim, and hello to everybody. Nice to be having a look at Amstelveen from many miles away. Nice for Salty Phil to have a look at an England spot as well, and he clubs another boundary through cover from Pieter Seelar, who I swear has been playing since I was a tiny child.
6th over: England 37-1 (Salt 24, Malan 11) Snater does well, mixing dots with singles, three of each. On the England balcony Eoin Morgan has his pads on, suggesting that he’s in next. On form he should probably be down at No 7, behind Buttler, Livingstone and Moeen, but England do need him to find his mojo before the T20 World Cup, so fair enough.
Meanwhile we have a change of bowling at the sofa end. The award-winning Geoff Lemon is going to be at the helm for the next 50 overs or so. I’ll see you later, for the thrilling Dutch run chase.
5th over: England 34-1 (Salt 23, Malan 9) Malan shuffles over to off stump, which works better for him than it did for Alex Lees in the Caribbean. He drives van Beek past cover point for his first four, then clips to midwicket for three.
4th over: England 25-1 (Salt 22, Malan 1) Snater comes down to earth as Salt hits two more fours – a handsome straight drive and a simple flick past fine leg, who is up in the circle.
3rd over: England 17-1 (Salt 14, Malan 1) With Roy gone, it’s up to Salt to be the master blaster. He rises to the challenge now, cover-driving van Beek for four and pulling him for six! England have woken up.
2nd over: England 5-1 (Salt 3, Malan 1) Dawid Malan comes in at No 3, in the role defined by Kane Williamson when he was playing under Brendon McCullum and said he was the library in the theme park. Malan tucks a single, whereupon Phil Salt chips over cover, rather unconvincingly, for three. Rumours that the pitch is a belter may have been exaggerated: the ball seems to be sticking a bit.
Wicket! Roy b Snater 1 (England 1-1)
Jason Roy has gone! To his own cousin!! Small world. Well bowled Shane Snater, who went full, got some swing back in, and persuaded his cousin Jason to play on. Five minutes in, and this game is already beginning to resemble a banana skin.
1st over: England 1-0 (Roy 1, Salt 0) The new ball is in the hands of Logan van Beek, who starts superbly, swinging the ball, keeping Jason Roy quiet, and beating Phil Salt with a full-length outswinger. Netherlands on top!
The players are out there, with the Dutch team resplendent in orange. If you love football as well as cricket, it’s hard not to root for any team dressed like that. Hoping they will play total cricket.
Teams: England pick three lefties
You know how England tend to field too many right-arm seamers? Well, today they haven’t picked one. It’s three left-armers (Willey, Topley, Curran) and three spinners (Rashid, Moeen, Livingstone).
England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Phil Salt, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jos Buttler (wkt), 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Sam Curran, 9 David Willey, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece Topley.
The Netherlands 1 Vikramjit Singh, 2 Max O’Dowd, 3 Musa Ahmed, 4 Bas de Leede, 5 Scott Edwards (wkt), 6 Teja Nidamanuru, 7 Pieter Seelaar (capt), 8 Logan van Beek, 9 Shane Snater, 10 Aryan Dutt, 11 Philippe Boissevain.
Toss: England bat first
Morning everyone and welcome to … yet another England cricket match! With a difference this time – it’s in Amsterdam. And it doesn’t involve any of the heroes of Trent Bridge 2022. Now that Test cricket has turned into Twenty20, maybe we have to look to the 50-over game for a bit of peace and quiet.
The news from Amstelveen is that Eoin Morgan – remember him? – has lost the toss, and Pieter Seelaar has asked England to bat first. The pitch looks like a belter, so England will be eyeing 400 as they play theirs game under their new coach, Matthew Mott. Play starts at 10am UK time.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to … yet another England cricket match! With a difference this time – it’s in Amsterdam. And it doesn’t involve any of the heroes of Trent Bridge 2022. Now that Test cricket has turned into Twenty20, maybe we have to look to the 50-over game for a bit of peace and quiet.