India and the Netherlands will play their first ever T20I match against each other on Thursday, October 27 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

It will be the second match for both the teams after India beat Pakistan in its first game while the Netherlands lost to Bangladesh. However, for at least one Dutchman the match was not all bad.

Pace bowler Paul van Meekeren became the joint all-time top T20 wicket-taker for his country, matching with Pieter Seelaar. While both have taken 58 T20 wickets, van Meekeren has taken 22 fewer matches to get there. A significant accomplishment for a side known more for its world-class footballers than anything else. 

Who is Paul van Meekeren?

Paul Adriaan van Meekeren is a Dutch international cricket player who currently plays for the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.

He has also played county cricket for Somerset and Durham. In addition, van Meekeren has also played for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots as part of franchise T20. The team is part of the Caribbean Premier League.

An all-rounder, van Meekeren is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. He made his international T20I debut for the Netherlands in 2013 against Kenya but the Dutch lost the match. The pacer then went on to make his ODI debut against South Africa against whom he managed to take the wicket of Hashim Amla.

In the very first round of the 2016 WT20, van Meekeren recorded his best performance till date, 4 wickets in 11 balls against Ireland. 

In 2017, as part of the Netherlands squad at the Inaugural Desert T20 Challenge against Hong Kong, he became the highest scoring Number 11 batsmen in T20 International with 18 runs from 11 balls. 

He was also part of the Dutch squad that played in the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.