England beat Netherlands by six wickets to claim series win

Amstelveen (Netherlands), June 20:England overcame a slight wobble to claim a six-wicket victory over the Netherlands and seal an unassailable 2-0 lead in their three-match ODI series.

The tourists posted the highest score in ODI history of 498 in Friday's first match, but they only required 236 runs to chase down their opponents' total in Amstelveen on Sunday.

However, after making a positive start to their response with Jason Roy (73) and Phil Salt (77) putting on a 139-run opening stand, England began to falter.

Captain Eoin Morgan again went for a duck and Liam Livingstone (4) followed, but Dawid Malan (36 not out) and Moeen Alli (42 n.o.) helped England claim victory with 29 balls to spare.

A dominant victory 🦁

🇳🇱 #NEDvENG 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/maXYZxAmhD

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 19, 2022

The start of play was delayed due to overnight rain, with the match reduced to 41 overs per side as a result.

Picking up from where they left off after their record win last week, England took the Netherlands' first three wickets for just 36.

New captain Scott Edwards spearheaded a recovery for the hosts with 78 off 73 balls, having earlier been given out before the leg before wicket decision was overturned.

Edwards was run out by David Willey, who ended with figures of 2-46 with the ball, while Adil Rashid also claimed the wickets of Max O'Dowd (7) and Tim Pringle (0).

England, who handed Roy his 150th ODI outing and Jos Butler his 100th, were on course for an easy win in pursuit of 235-7 until a flurry of wickets made things interesting.

Shane Snater caught his cousin Roy and then Morgan, either side of Salt being sent packing by Aryan Dutt, before Pringle took Livingstone from his first ball.

Yet Mooen and Malan steadied the ship to steer England to victory.

Edwards digs deep for the Dutch

Replacing former skipper Pieter Seelaar, who announced his retirement from international cricket on Sunday, Edwards stepped up for the Netherlands after electing to bat first, with his knock including three sixes.

That was the highest score of the day, though it was not enough to prevent the Dutch from slipping to an 11th successive ODI loss – not since between February 1996 and February 2003, a run of 12 matches, have they endured a longer losing run.

Morgan frustrated

Morgan was in need of some runs to get himself back into form after registering a first golden duck in the format since September 2017 in Friday's opener.

But he scored another zero, this time when attempting to hit Tom Cooper across the line but only succeeding in giving Snater a simple snare, and questions might be asked over his place in this England team.