Gloucestershire cricketers Glenn Phillips and Paul van Meekeren have played pivotal roles for New Zealand and the Netherlands as both sides impress at this year’s Cricket World Cup in India.
Regular T20 Blast overseas player for Gloucestershire, Phillips has impacted games in all three disciplines helping New Zealand win all four of their matches so far as they sit top of the table with five games still to play in the round robin stage.
New Zealand’s ‘golden arm’ with the ball, Phillips has collected three crucial wickets with his part-time finger spin including two against defending champions England in the opening fixture of the tournament with Joe Root and Moeen Ali being his victims.
Phillips took a wicket with his first ball in his third game of the tournament against Bangladesh as the Blackcaps cruised to a victory in Chennai. Phillips finally made a big contribution with the bat in their most recent game versus Afghanistan as he made 71 in a 149-run victory.
Phillips and New Zealand’s next assignment is on Sunday against tournament favourites, and hosts, India with one team bound to lose their unbeaten record in the picturesque Dharamsala.
Dutchman van Meekeren has led the Netherlands bowling attack in all three of their matches so far as they look to play above the ‘associate’ tag they have been labelled with.
Having picked up five wickets, the fast bowler has been crucial in getting opposition sides into trouble as was seen in their opening fixture against Pakistan in Hyderabad leaving them 38-3 at one stage before their superior quality got them over the line.
The Dutch were impressive once again against New Zealand as van Meekeren and Phillips faced off in each side’s second game of the tournament as the Kiwis eventually won by 99 runs, but not before van Meekeren picked the crucial wickets of Will Young and Daryl Mitchell.
Then came the biggest upset in this year’s World Cup, Netherlands beating the in-form South Africa as van Meekeren, with the wickets of Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen, dominated for the majority of the shortened game. The Dutch were in trouble very early on before skipper Scott Edwards and the tail got them to a defendable total before they bundled the Proteas out 38 runs short of their target.
The Netherlands and van Meekeren’s next fixture is tomorrow morning vs Sri Lanka, in Lucknow, with the opposition the only side yet to register a win so far, while the Dutch could move up to as high as fifth with their second win of the tournament.
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