Bas de Leede appeared for an online examination in the middle of the night. And a few hours later, on Tuesday afternoon, he helped the Netherlands prevail over Namibia in a Group A game of the T20 World Cup in Geelong.

This 22-year-old, doing his graduation in business administration from Rotterdam University, took two wickets, as many catches and then remained unbeaten on 30 batting at No.3, leading the Netherlands to a five-wicket win over Namibia that took them to the top of Group A.

The Dutchmen thus have also moved closer to gaining a Super 12 berth.

The Netherlands’ bowlers were on the money right away after Namibia won the toss and opted to bat first. Alongside De Leede (2/18 in 3 overs), Paul van Meekeren (1/18), Tim Pringle (1/15 in 3 overs) and Colin Ackermann (1/17 in 3 overs) were accurate enough to restrict Namibia to 121 for 6.

The Netherlands were cruising in their reply, thanks to openers Max O’Dowd (35) and Vikramjit Singh (39). A mini-collapse saw them slip to 102 for 5 in the 17th over from 92 for 1 in the 14th over.

De Leede, however, held his nerves and, along with Pringle (8 not out), got the required 20 more runs to take the Dutch home with three balls to spare.

Vikramjit Singh of The Netherlands in action on Tuesday. Twitter

Like De Leede, who’s the son of former Dutch all-rounder Tim de Leede, who had made his international debut in the 1996 World Cup and played 29 ODIs, the Netherlands team has another interesting case in the form of pacer Logan van Beek.

A few weeks ago, the 32-year-old had turned up for New Zealand A during their recent four-day games and one-dayers against India Ain Bangalore, Hubballi and Chennai.

Also, 20-year-old Pringle is the son of former New Zealand quick Chris Pringleand like Van Beek, he too had played for New Zealand U-19.

In spite of winning both their matches so far, there’s still no guarantee yet of the Netherlands’ qualification to Super 12. But in spite of the hurdles back home from the cricketing point of view, how they have performed so far in the World Cup is quite commendable.

Brief scores: Namibia 121/6 in 20 overs (J. Frylinck 43; B. De Leede 2/18). The Netherlands 122/5 in 19.3 ovs (V. Singh 39, B. de Leede 30 n.o.; JJ Smit 2/24). The Netherlands won by 5 wickets.