Clinical Afghans bowl out Dutch for 179 in battle of giant-killers

Netherlands 179 all out; Engelbrecht 58. Afghans bowlers Nabi 3/28, Noor Ahmad 2/31, Mujeeb 1/40. Dutch mid-innings collapse after O'Dowd, Ackermann 70-run stand. Poor judgement, brilliant fielding from Afghans destabilised Dutch. Alikhil 4 dismissals. Afghan spinners benefit from Lucknow pitch.

Sybrand Engelbrecht struck a gritty half-century but failed to push the Netherlands to a competitive total as Afghanistan bowled them out for 179 in a World Cup match in Lucknow on Friday.

Engelbrecht (58 off 86) anchored Netherlands' innings after the Dutch suffered a mid-innings collapse. This was after Max O'Dowd (42 off 40) and Colin Ackermann (29) shared an attacking 70-run stand off 64 balls for the second wicket after electing to bat.

Netherlands lost Wesley Barresi, who replaced Vikramjit Singh, in the fifth ball of the innings, with Mujeeb Ur Rahman catching him plumb in front of the wicket.

O'Dowd and Ackermann steadied the Dutch ship before Netherlands suffered a dramatic middle-order collapse.

Three run outs jolted Netherlands' surge as from 73 for one they slumped to 92 for 5, losing half the side inside 20 overs.

Poor judgement while running between the wickets and some brilliant fielding from the Afghans destabilised the Dutchmen.