Gloucestershire overseas cricketers Glenn Phillips and Paul van Meekeren have continued to help their nations to successful World Cup campaigns so far.
Phillips and his New Zealand side currently sit fourth in the table after three losses on the bounce before a huge game versus Pakistan early on Saturday morning.
Van Meekeren has continued to lead the Dutch bowling attack as they continue to surprise people by picking up their second win of the tournament.
The Kiwis’ first loss of the tournament came against favourites and hosts India in Dharamshala where Phillips played quite a small role throughout the match.
With his side batting first, Phillips struggled to get going in the latter part of the innings as he hit spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the air for 23 as New Zealand made 273 from their 50 overs.
India chased the total down with two overs to spare with Virat Kohli’s 95 steering them to victory. Phillips, who has been very effective with the ball in hand too, only bowled a couple of overs that went for a combined 12 runs.
Despite losing their next game as well, Phillips was involved in all time classic versus Australia as the record most runs ever scored in World Cup game.
Australia were incredible when batting first and eventually ended their innings on 388 as Travis Head’s 109 on World Cup debut set New Zealand a mammoth total, Phillips bowled exceptionally picking up 3-37 from his 10 overs.
116 from Rachin Ravindra, 58 from James Neesham and 54 from Daryl Mitchell with contributions from the rest of the lineup, including 12 from Phillips, got New Zealand to 383 as they lost by five runs.
Phillips then made 60 batting with the tail in a massive loss by 190 runs to South Africa on Wednesday as the Kiwis fell to their third consecutive loss after winning their first four games of the competition. They play Pakistan in Bangalore on Saturday in what is essentially a quarter-final during the round robin.
After a shock win against South Africa, van Meekeren and his Netherlands teammates lost a closely contested game to Sri Lanka where the European side struggled with the bat early on before making 262 which was chased with 10 balls remaining.
The Dutch’s next game was against the momentum gaining Australia, where they were outclassed with bat and ball in Delhi as Glenn Maxwell hit the fastest ever World Cup century as the five-time champions hit 399 before skittling van Meekeren and co for 90 for the largest margin of victory in ODI history.
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The Netherlands would pick up their second win of the competition against Bangladesh in Kolkata with van Meekeren being the standout bowler across the game, as he dominated the Bangladesh middle order ending with figures of 4-23 as they beat the Tigers by 87 runs.
The Dutch play today against Afghanistan with a win for either side keeping their slim chances of a surprising semi-final place alive in Lucknow.
