Batting first, the English side posted a mammoth total of 339/9, powered by a century from Ben Stokes. The star all-rounder’s knock of 108 runs came off 84 balls, comprising 6 fours and 6 sixes.

Earlier, opener Dawid Malan had set the innings tone, with a fiery knock of 87 off 74 balls. Other in the top order failed to capitalise on their start, whereas, skipper Jos Butler’s poor form in the lower middle order continued as he was dismissed for only 5 runs.

Chris Woakes’ timely 51 runs off 45 balls allowed England to cruise above the 300-mark.

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Bas de Leede was the Dutch side’s pick of the bowlers, as he took 3 wickets but conceded 74 runs.

As the chase began, Netherlands appeared to be outmatched by the former world champions, who kept regularly picking the wickets. Top order batters Wesley Barresi, Sybrand Engelbrecht and skipper Scott Edwards went into their 30s, but failed to convert it into big scores. 

Moeen Ali emerged with the most impressive figures among the English bowlers, as he took 3 wickets for 42 runs. His spinning partner Adil Rashid also bagged 3 wickets, and conceded 54 runs. Pacers Woakes and David Willey condeded 19 runs and picked up 2 wickets each.

Stokes was awarded as the player of the match.

While England had already ran out of their chances to qualify in the semi-finals, the victory was important for them to remain in contention for a spot in the 2025 Champions Trophy.

As per the rules set by the International Cricket Council, the top 8 teams in the World Cup points table will be eligible to play in the Champions Trophy tournament in Pakistan.

With 4 points, England is tied with the bottom three teams of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Netherlands. However, it is currently ranked at 7th – a notch above the three of them – due to a relatively stronger net run rate of -0.88. However, the equations may change depending on the result of Sri Lanka’s match against New Zealand on November 9, Bangladesh’s match against Australia and England’s match against Pakistan on November 11.

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Updated: 08 Nov 2023, 09:59 PM IST