Ten Doeschate ton stuns England

Ryan ten Doeschate
12 April 2012

Ryan ten Doeschate's career-best 119 put the onus on England's batsmen to better 292 for six to avoid a shock setback against Holland at the start of their World Cup campaign.

Essex all-rounder Ten Doeschate hit three sixes and nine fours in an outstanding 110-ball innings to ensure Holland set a tough target, and posted by far their highest score against a Test-playing nation.

England, who infamously lost to these same opponents the last time they met - again in their first match of a major tournament, the ICC World Twenty20 at Lord's in 2009 - will need to bat well but not necessarily brilliantly on a very good wicket to avoid a second dose of Dutch embarrassment.

Openers Wesley Barresi and Alexei Kervezee wasted no time signalling Dutch intent, with a succession of early boundaries. But Kervezee somehow chipped a short ball from Tim Bresnan over his own head to be caught behind, and Barresi was well-stumped by Matt Prior to give Graeme Swann a wicket in his first over yet again.

That merely brought in Ten Doeschate, and he did not disappoint - in half-century stands with Tom Cooper, Tom de Grooth and finally his captain Peter Borren.

He was fortunate to survive on 47 when England's worst of several bad moments in the field saw Kevin Pietersen and James Anderson - at long-off and long-on - allow a skied straight hit off Swann to drop comically between them.

Cooper batted skilfully until he fell to a tame flick off Paul Collingwood to straight midwicket three runs short of his 50. Then after Bas Zuiderent failed to find the gap and chipped Swann to midwicket to go for a single, there was more responsibility than ever on Ten Doeschate to see the innings through.

After Ten Doeschate and De Grooth saw off Swann, there were more opportunities to score in the powerplay. De Grooth saw little of them, yorked by Stuart Broad in the first over with the field up, but his contribution was still key, lending support just when Ten Doeschate needed it and producing a series of cunning fine deflections.

Ten Doeschate was unarguably the main man, though, and it was a cruelly appropriate snap shot when he went to his fourth one-day international hundred as hapless England contributed four overthrows via a Jonathan Trott shy at the stumps from short fine-leg.

Ten Doeschate was limping worryingly on his left leg by the time he was caught in the deep by his county team-mate Ravi Bopara off Broad. But he had inflicted serious damage on illustrious opponents, and Borren kept the tempo up to the end as hardly anything went right for England and 104 runs were plundered in the last 10 overs.

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