James Vince Made 95 Not Out and Never Faced the Last Ball — Rotterdam Chase 179 With Eight to Spare

One hundred and seventy-eight for four is a total that ought to say a side batted well. Dublin Guardians batted one man well. James Vince made 95 not out from 54 balls and the rest of the top five contributed 56 between them off 53 — and the arithmetic of a T20 innings does not forgive that, however handsome the ninety-five looks in the scorebook.

Vince has been playing this innings for fifteen years across four continents: the drive on the up through extra cover, the clip off the hip, the slog-sweep that looks like a golf shot and travels sixty metres. He reached fifty from 29 balls with five fours and three sixes and was on 55 at the ten-over drinks break, at which point Dublin were 78 for 2 and required somebody at the other end to be in a hurry. Nobody was, until Vijay Shankar arrived in the seventeenth over and made 26 from 13. By then Rotterdam had already decided what a par score looked like at Voorburg, and 178 was under it.

The Guardians' powerplay was 50 for 1, which is respectable, and 41 of the 50 came from Vince. Noah Croes made 8 from 15 and was caught off David Wiese. Harry Tector — a batter of genuine international pedigree who has scored T20 hundreds for Ireland — made 14 from 15 and was bowled by Anrich Nortje in the tenth. Daryl Mitchell made 8 from 6. That is three specialist batters, 30 runs, 36 balls.

Roelof van der Merwe then did the thing left-arm spinners do to sides who have stopped believing: 4-0-35-2, both wickets to batters trying to hit their way out of a required rate that had risen because nobody would rotate the strike. Sanjay Krishnamurthi's 26 from 17 was the only innings besides Vince's to clear a strike rate of 150 for more than ten balls, and he was caught at 133 in the seventeenth.

Dublin scored 45 from the last three overs, largely through Shankar. It was too late and it was also, in a way, the point: 178 was available all evening, and 200 was available to a side with two batters in form rather than one.

Michael Levitt made 35 from 14 with three fours and three sixes and Rotterdam were 55 without loss in the fifth over. That is the whole chase, really — everything after it was administration. The required rate never went above nine, the Dockers were 100 in the twelfth, and Faf du Plessis constructed the sort of innings that captains of settled sides construct when the panic has already been removed from a chase: 79 from 51 with nine fours and a single six, almost all of them placed rather than hit.

Ravichandran Ashwin, leading Dublin, bowled four overs for 21 and had du Plessis lbw in the sixteenth at 148 — comfortably the best spell of the innings and, in a match his side lost by seven wickets with eight balls unused, an entirely futile one. Josh Little took two for 42. The other four Dublin bowlers went at better than ten an over between them.

Heinrich Klaasen finished it, 34 not out from 28, in the manner of a man who had allocated himself twenty minutes and used eighteen of them. Ben McDermott, who won Rotterdam the previous night's game off the penultimate ball, faced eight deliveries here and was not required to do anything at all. That contrast is the most flattering thing you can say about a batting line-up.

There was no CricIntel preview for this fixture, so there is nothing of ours to mark. What we will carry into the next one is an observation this match made twice over: Dublin Guardians have Ashwin, Little, Dockrell, Tector, Mitchell and Vince, which on paper is the most decorated squad in the competition, and they have lost four out of four with a net run rate of -1.957. Their bowling has now conceded 656 runs in 72.2 overs across the tournament. Names are not a plan.

Rotterdam Dockers are unbeaten after five — four wins and a no-result, seven points, second on net run rate behind Edinburgh Castle Rockers, whom they play next. They have won by five wickets with eleven balls left, five wickets with one ball left, and now seven wickets with eight to spare, and the winner has been a different player each time: du Plessis, McDermott, du Plessis again. Anrich Nortje, David Wiese and van der Merwe have given them a bowling attack that never lets a chase get away.

Dublin Guardians are bottom with nought from four. They face Amsterdam Flames next, the only other side without a win, and it has become the fixture their tournament turns on. James Vince has now scored heavily and lost; the fix is not more Vince. It is somebody — Tector, Mitchell, Krishnamurthi — batting fifteen overs with him.