Chittagong (Bangladesh), March 31 (IANS) The Netherlands pulled off a major upset beating England by 45 runs in a Group 1 encounter of the World Twenty20 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium here Monday.
Put to bat first, the Dutch led by some dogged batting from Stephan Myburgh (39) and Wesley Barresi (48) reached 133 for five in 20 overs.
In reply, England batted abysmally and were bowled out for an embarassing 88 in 17.4 overs.
Barring opener Alex Hales (12), Ravi Bopara (18) and Chris Jordan (14), none of the other batsmen could even reach double figures.
England, who are already out of the tournament, looked completely disinterested and that transferred to their batting.
Michael Lumb (6) was the first to go in the third over, which opened the floodgates.
Moeen Ali (3), Eoin Morgan (6) and Jos Buttler (6) were anything but sure and fell in the space of four overs to leave England tottering at 42 for five in 10 overs.
It only got worse for the 2010 T20 champions as they failed to stem the fall of wickets and were bowled out for the paltry score.
Earlier, the Netherlands got off to a flyer reaching 34 in the fourth over. Myburgh and Barresi then strung together a 50-run partnership for the second wicket taking the Dutch score to 84 for one after 11 overs.
However, after Myburgh’s dismissal, the Netherlands seemed to lose their way. Slow run-rate juxtaposed with fall of hitters like Tom Cooper (8) and Peter Borren (7) saw them being restricted to 133.
Stuart Broad was the pick of the English bowlers, picking up three for 24. Ravi Bopara too bowled economically, giving away 15 runs in his four overs and taking a wicket.