Netherlands comb over batting gaps and end up looking slick

The Netherlands' batting over the last three weeks can be likened to the follicle situations that end up afflicting most men as they enter middle age. The hairline recedes, the forehead becomes a fivehead, and whatever stylings there are to be made come towards the back of the crown.

It is by no means a remedy to the struggles upfront, and over-reliance on the thickness in the middle can end up leading to more exposure down the line. But it's working well for the Dutch - well enough to bag them multiple ODI World Cup wins in a single edition for the first time. Their locks might not be flowing, but they are styling and profiling all the same.

There's an argument to be made that this history-making victory over Bangladesh might rank ahead of their vanquishing of South Africa 11 days earlier. Not because of the opposition - the Proteas are a far better outfit, and this Bangladesh are a shadow of their best selves. But the manner of this particular middle-order rebuild, from the assessment of a dire situation, a recalibration of approach and execution of in-game tweaks, spoke of an evolution of nous and skill aligned with the usual pluck we expect from this outfit.

We haven't seen too many World Cup pitches like this one, as the famous Eden Gardens made its tournament bow. Dry for spinners and whatever cutters the quicks want to dish out, with a patchy ring in the middle adding a bit of spice to whatever shorter balls the latter fancied sending down. On paper, it was a surface that suited Bangladesh's attack. Having had the Netherlands 4 for 2, then 63 for 4 in the 15th over, a formulaic win played out in front of a predominantly green-shirted crowd felt inevitable.

You could chart the Dutch fightback by the drop in decibels. One by one, a crowd up and about began sitting down as a combination of Scott Edwards, Bas de Leede and Sybrand Engelbrecht took the sting out of the occasion. A few hours later, the stands had emptied giving the ground an altogether different look. Orange was the new green in Kolkata.

What cues there are to take from Dutch sporting culture is that the midfield is where the true heroes lie. And if you can forgive the ham-fisted extrapolation, their cricket team have carried that over to great effect.

Numbers four to eight managed 158 of the 229 total here, the second most they have provided after 160 out of 262 in the five-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka. As it was against South Africa (129 out of 245), what began as a rescue act instigated by the engine room turned into a shot at glory that their bowlers, led by Paul van Meekeren's 4 for 23, would confirm.

This time, however, they took the scenic route; those life-giving 158 runs came off 231 balls, with 30 more dots than they accrued against Sri Lanka (101), not to mention 10 fewer twos (nine compared to 19), which they usually regard as their calling cards. That they ended up hitting more boundaries (15 to seven) was perhaps more of a blemish on Bangladesh's work, who went into a holding pattern that resulted in a few loose deliveries rather than go for a quick kill.

The surface was up and down - more often up for the seamers and down for the spinners. Scoring quickly was not an option, particularly after such a poor start. As ever, Edwards' arrival brought what de Leede described as "composure". "We didn't have to score 350 or something like that," said de Leede after the match.

He and Edwards only put on 44, but the 74 deliveries taken was the first word to those on the periphery of this match that an audible had been called to maintain a footing in proceedings. That continued when Engelbrecht joined his captain for a partnership in which the 105 deliveries faced were as important as the 78 runs. Engelbrecht faced 60 of them, while a set Edwards struck at close to a run-a-ball (41 off 45).

Having registered a second half-century of the tournament, in 78 balls in the 41st over, an acceleration of three boundaries in the next nine deliveries faced was Edwards putting the word out there that now was the time to come out firing. And though he and Engelbrecht would fall in the space of five deliveries, the rest heeded the message. Aryan Dutt came and went, but not before striking the first six of the innings, lifting Shoriful Islam over midwicket. In the final over, Logan van Beek took off his silencer to smear offspinner Mahedi Hasan to get 17 from the first five balls of the final over.

It speaks volumes of the confidence this Netherlands team is carrying that in a competition littered with high scores, and having been on the wrong end of 399 against Australia, Edwards informed his dressing room at the break that their 229 should do the trick. The margin of victory confirmed that sound judgement.

"We bat very deep, which is one of the qualities we have as a team," boasted de Leede. "It's been one of the qualities of our middle order, rotating the strike against spin. They've helped us get out of some tricky situations a lot.

"It's probably, from a top-order point of view, disappointing we haven't gotten ourselves off to a good start, yet again. That's something we're trying to fix, but [we are] very proud of our middle order and the way we've played so far."

It's worth letting that last point from de Leede marinate. Because while this fifth 50-over World Cup will go down as the Netherlands' most successful, they have not been the best version of themselves.

They came to India with ambitions of having a dart at the semi-finals. While that looks beyond them with three games to play, upcoming fixtures against Afghanistan and England are further opportunities to leave with plenty more to savour.