New Delhi: Mudassar Bukhari and Peter Borren, who tried to revive the Netherlands innings by going for the big hits, fell to Zaheer Khan, folding the Oranges for 189 on a batting strip at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Wednesday.
Khan took 3 wickets for 20 runs in 6.4 overs he bowled. Ace spinner Harbhajan Singh and his part-time mate Yusuf Pathan were left blank as Piyush Chawla and Yuvraj Singh shared two each and Ashish Nehra picked up one wicket.
The pitch had nothing for the pacers and MSD called off spearhead Zaheer Kahn after just three overs while Ashish Nehra’s first spell featured only one over.
It was Chawla who got the first breakthrough against the Netherlands by removing Eric Szwarczynski after the Oranges forced Mahendra Singh Dhoni to resort to his spinners early into the match following a solid start.
Chawla’s googly deceived Szwarczynski, going past him to work its magic on his leg and middle stumps. Chawla picked up his second wicket by sending off Alexei Kervezee, who ran out Tom de Grooth before giving his own wicket.
Lifted by the performance of spinners, Indian pacers Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan inflicted heavy damage on the Dutch batting line up. Nehra fired off an offcutter to get rid of Tom Cooper and Khan trapped Bas Zuiderent for a duck.
Yuvraj Singh trapped Wesley Barresi in front of the stumps in the last ball of his first over to claim his first victim and struck again to take off Ryan ten Doeschate.
"The ball may keep a little low in the second innings, but this is a batsman's pitch alright,” Sunny Gavaskar has said during the pitch report.
Scoreboard of the group B cricket World Cup match between India and The Netherelands at Feroz Shah Kotla ground here today. Netherlands: E Szwarczynski b Chawla 28
W Barresi lbw b Y Singh 26
T Cooper c Dhoni b Nehra 29
R ten Doeschate c Khan b Y Singh 11
A Kervezee c H Singh b Chawla 11
B Zuiderent lbw b Khan 0
T de Grooth run out 5
P Borren c Nehra b Khan 38
P Kruger run out 8
M Bukhari B Khan 21
P Seelar not out 0
Extras (B-6, LB-3, W-2, NB-1) 12 Total (All out in 46.4 overs) 189
Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-64, 3-99, 4-100, 5-101, 6-108, 7-127, 8-151, 9-189. Bowling: Zaheer Khan 6.4-0-20-3, Ashish Nehra 5-1-22-1, Yusuf Pathan 6-1-17-0, Harbhajan Singh 10-0-31-0, Piyush Chawla 10-0-47-2, Yuvraj Singh 9-1-43-2.