The Netherlands have had quite a journey coming into the ICC ODI World Cup 2023. After failing to qualify in the past two editions, they made it this year after knocking 2-time champions West Indies. Thrilled and excited, the Dutchmen caused a major upset in the tournament by thumping South Africa in Dharamsala to register their first win. However, they were back to square one after losing the battle to Sri Lanka in Lucknow.
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But the show is not over yet. The Dutchmen have fought tooth and nail to reach here. From gathering a squad of 15, which has players from different origins, to prepping up for the tournament, it’s been a guerilla campaign, more or less. They dream of being in the semis and to fulfill, they need to breach some strongest walls.
The Netherlands are in Delhi where they will square off against mighty Australia on Wednesday and undoubtedly, the challenge is huge. The 5-time champions may have suffered a few hiccups at the beginning of the tourney but eventually, they have found the rhythm and seem unstoppable currently. Taming the Kangaroos is tough but not impossible. The Dutchmen need to come up with a foolproof plan to beat them at Kotla before they head back to Lucknow to face the Afghans.
Speaking of right planning, it’s high time for The Netherlands to buckle up and fine-tune the weak areas to get results in their favour consistently. One of them is their opening combo of Vikramjit Singh and Max O’Dowd. They have had immense success in the past but coming to the ICC World Cup 2023, they seem to have lost their mojo.
The highest opening stand for The Netherlands so far is of 28 runs, against Pakistan in Hyderabad. Since then, the number has dipped further, getting to as low as 7 against Sri Lanka last week. In fact, the team has suffered top-order collapses in the past couple of games before the middle or lower-order rescued the side. It’s a great sign that batters down the order are taking the onus and posting a respected total but that couldn’t be the way ahead, especially when a team is eyeing the semis.
Speaking after the Sri Lanka clash in Lucknow last Saturday, opening batter O’Dowd addressed the matter and said the team is putting on hard yards to get over it.
“If we go by the stats, the top-order has been the most successful part of our batting group. And it has not clicked in the last few games and that has been quite frustrating,” O’Dowd told reporters in the ICC mixed zone.
“That’s kind of a way it has been for Dutch cricket side recently elsewhere. If the top-order is performing, then the issue is with the middle-order or the other way round. But even that’s not ideal. It’s just the way how it’s happening at the moment. And of course, we are clicking but also trying everything to get it right. The process is all the same, and the work we do at the training is all the same.
“So, fingers crossed!”
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Hoping for a better camaraderie with Vikram
While O’Dowd has scored 55 Runs in 4 innings, his partner Vikram got 70, including a half-century, which by all means isn’t an ideal start to have. But the former believes in his long-time camaraderie with Vikram, hoping for a better and stronger comeback against the Aussies on Wednesday.
Replying to a Cricketnext query, O’Dowd said they will try not to complicate things but rather will head into the upcoming games with a clear mindset.
“We have had plenty of batting meetings. Vikram and I have been opening the batting for a very long time together now. And nothing much has changed, to be honest. We have been successful in the past and we always try to better ourselves as players and for us, it’s more the preparation that we do against the opposition – how we can apply that, how we can combat there. Each team has different kinds of skills. So for us, it’s the preparation that we do leading into the game like that. How do we score boundaries, how do we keep off the good balls… all these kinds of things,” O’Dowd told Cricketnext.
“But then it also a balance is not over complicate. Because if we do so and can’t get ourselves in tricky situations. It’s been tough so far but there’s plenty to come,” he added.
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