Netherlands opted to field first after winning the toss for the second time in a row at the 2023 World Cup and got off to another good start with the ball at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad today (October 9).

In their first game against Pakistan at the same venue, Netherlands had picked three wickets in the first ten overs to leave their opponents struggling at 38-3.

Today, they began with three successive maiden overs, equalling the record for most consecutive maidens to start an innings in the history of the men’s ODI World Cup.

Aryan Dutt took the new ball as he did in the last game against England. His partner today, was different, however. Ryan Klein replaced Logan van Beek and shared the new ball with Dutt. Both combined to bowl tight lines and lengths as the New Zealand opening pair of Devon Conway and Will Young found it difficult to get the ball into gaps.

This was the second occasion that a men’s ODI World Cup innings started with three consecutive maiden overs. The West Indies-South Africa game in Cape Town at the 2003 World Cup had got off to a similar start where Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini had combined to bowl three maiden overs to start the West Indies innings against the duo of Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds. Overall, it was the 14th such occasion in men’s ODI history.

Conway and Young, however, recovered from the slow start pretty soon and went on a rampage, scoring 43 runs in the next four overs. By the end of the first ten overs, New Zealand’s score read 63-0, not what Netherlands would have expected after not conceding a run in the first three overs.

Conway then fell for 32 in the 13th over off the bowling of Roelof van der Merwe, getting caught at deep mid-wicket as he tried to launch the left-arm spinner out of the ground.