New Zealand suffered an early blow in their 203-run chase, however, Will Young and Henry Nicholls kept the scoring rate going and were at their fluent best. In the end, New Zealand registered a comfortable seven-wicket victory in the first ODI against the Netherlands at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui on Tuesday. Netherlands' Michael Rippon's all-round performance - he contributed 67 runs of 97 balls and took two crucial wickets in the game - went in vein.
The Kiwi batter Will Young played a phenomenal innings, scoring his maiden ODI century (103 not out) and showed a balance of calmness and aggression to a great effect on the field.
While the debutant Will Young led his side to an easy victory with an outstanding performance for the hosts and was named man of the match, Henry Nicholls too played a vital role by scoring 57 runs of 79 balls. Together, the players managed to get a partnership of 162 runs for the second wicket against the Dutch bowlers.
Watch: New Zealand vs Netherlands 1st ODI highlights
“To be honest, it's been a bit of a funny summer, I haven't played as much cricket, as I normally would have. I'm just taking it each game as I play, I’m just trying to make the most of every single opportunity I have in the middle there," Will Young said after the match.
{{/usCountry}}“To be honest, it's been a bit of a funny summer, I haven't played as much cricket, as I normally would have. I'm just taking it each game as I play, I’m just trying to make the most of every single opportunity I have in the middle there," Will Young said after the match.
{{/usCountry}}“I sort of feel that this summer is a little bit similar to the previous summer. If you remember, Bangladesh came at the end of last summer and I got a couple of opportunities there. So, I’m sort of in a similar scenario, I guess playing against the Netherlands at the end of this home summer is helpful. It's a nice way to finish playing some white-ball cricket and you can go out there and express yourself,” he added.
Earlier, Blair Tickner and Kyle Jamieson combined to trouble the Netherlands batters with pace and bounce. Jamieson picked up three wickets by Tickner registered the best figures of the match with 4/50.