Netherlands reveal ‘act of courage’ by pacer during WC qualifiers as he played against WI despite hand injury

The Netherlands will be on a high after handing the West Indies a shock defeat in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 qualifiers ahead of the Super Six stage. In one of the colossal upsets of ongoing qualifiers, the Dutch prevailed in a thriller that went to the super over after Scott Edwards’ side scored 374 in response to West Indies’ identical total. All-rounder Logan van Beek smashed 30 runs off the super over bowled by Jason Holder as the West Indies could only get 8 runs in the one-over eliminator.

Ahead of their first Super Six match against Sri Lanka, the Netherlands revealed an act of courage from one of their pacers Vivian Kingma. The Netherlands revealed that Kingma split his webbing during catching practice before the match against the West Indies and he had to get stitches on it. Kingma not only played through pain but also bowled his full quota of 10 overs and delivered the first breakthrough for his side dismissing Johnson Charles.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, June 28, the Netherlands on Twitter wrote, “Minutes after being named in the playing XI for the first time in the tournament, our fast bowler Vivian Kingma unfortunately split his webbing on his bowling hand while doing some pre-match catching practice.

“In the above picture, he’s seen getting stitches moments before the match commenced. Since he had to open the bowling, Vivian could not take local anaesthesia as that would have left his bowling hand numb.

“So, he decided to bowl despite the pain and didn’t flinch even when one of the deliveries was hit straight at his injured hand. Viv not only bowled all his 10 overs, including an economical opening spell on a featherbed, but also got us the first wicket of the innings,” the Netherlands Cricket Twitter handle further wrote.

It’s unlikely that Kingma will play on Friday, June 30 against Sri Lanka in his side’s first match of Super Six, however, his gesture just sums up the spirit of the Dutch side with which they played against the West Indies. The Netherlands currently have two points going into the Super Six and will need to win all three of their remaining matches to book their flights for India in October-November later this year.

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