Netherlands / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 22 February 2011 /

Betting.betfair's Ryan ten doeschate hit a superb century for the Netherlands against England but it wasn't quite enough as Andrew Strauss' men somewhat unconvincigly got off to a winning start...

We all knew he was good but maybe we didn't know he was that good! Betting.betfair's Dutch World Cup diarist Ryan ten doeschate kicked off his World Cup campaign in style with a superb 119 off 110 balls (nine 4s, three 6s) followed by 2-47 off 10 overs with the ball in a performance which single-handedly gave the Dutch a real chance of beating England this afternoon, some 18 months after beating them in the 2009 T20 World Cup.

Ryan came in at 4 and played almost the perfect ODI innings, punishing the bad balls to the boundary, rotating the strike well and accelerating towards the end of the innings, eventually holing out to Ravi Bopara at a stage when he was unsurprisingly suffering from cramp. A quick visit to the physio in between innings got him patched up and his subsequent performance with the ball was also the pick of the Dutch bowling, taking the wickets of Warwickshire pair Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott at an economy rate of just 4.7. In the end it just wasn't enough as England chased down 296 with eight balls to spare.

The Dutch will look back at a poor start with the ball (which included too many 'freebies' pitched on middle and leg stump which allowed Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen to make a superb start and be up with the run rate throughout the innings) as the main reason for not causing the first big upset of the tournament. Even after the England skipper was dismissed for an impressive 88 and KP for 39, wickets in hand always meant the middle order could take risks and go for big shots when the run rate briefly went above seven an over towards the last quarter of the run chase. But ten doeschate can go back to his hotel with his head held high after he deservedly won the Man Of The Match award, which was also the best performance by an all-rounder at the tournament so far.

As for England, they'll take heart from chasing down a big score relatively comfortably and from the fact that everyone made a decent contribution with the bat but the fielding was sloppy at best and the bowling very ordinary indeed. James Anderson (0-72) and Stuart Broad (2-65) were uncharacteristically expensive though Graeme Swann was impressive, taking 2-35. Andy Flowers' side will be glad to have got the win under their belts put a repeat performance against India on Sunday will almost certainly result in defeat. As it is, they're the [2.6] outsiders to beat the co-hosts.

As for Ryan, look out for his second diary entry over the next couple of days here on betting.betfair where he will be talking about this match just gone by and his thoughts on their next game against the West Indies on Monday.

Read Ryan's first entry here.

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