A resurgent Netherlands side delivered an impressive performance at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, securing an 87-run victory over Bangladesh on Saturday. This marked Netherlands’ second win in the tournament as they handed Bangladesh their fifth defeat.
Netherlands’ skipper Scott Edwards praised the lower-order batters for adding crucial runs lower down the order. He also lauded the bowlers, including Aryan Dutt, Colin Ackermann, and Bas de Leede, for their excellent performance. “I think it was easy to be fair. We were saying if we could get 220 plus, we were in the game,” he said in the presentation ceremony. “The lower order guys got us to a very competitive total. The bowlers have been awesome. Aryan, Colin, Bas everyone. We have been superb on the field. Bit of everything.”
Moreover, Edwards highlighted the increasing professionalism within the Netherlands cricket system, emphasizing their rigorous training. “The system is getting more professional in Netherlands. We train incredibly hard.”
At the beginning of the tournament, their goal was to reach the semi-finals. However, Edwards acknowledged that they have challenging matches ahead. “We always spoke at the start of the tournament that we aim for the semis. That remains our goal but we have a few tough games coming up.”
Paul van Meekeren stood out as the star performer for the Dutch side, achieving his best-ever bowling figures in ODI cricket, taking 4 wickets for 23 runs. He was duly awarded the Player of the Match.
“Very happy with the way we bounced back after what happened against Australia. At the halfway stage, 230-240 would have been par we reckoned. Aryan Dutt and van Beek kept things tight in the powerplay. We’ve been working on our fielding, every training session we do 20 minutes of fielding drills. It was an all-round performance, pretty tough to pick a Man of the Match. Scott Edwards and Sybrand Engelbrecht got a bit of momentum for us by building that partnership. Pure team performance tonight.”
A dejected Shakib didn’t hesitate to acknowledge that the team’s batting performance has been consistently poor right from the start of the tournament. “I thought we bowled very well. We should have restricted them to 160-170. We have been very poor with the bat throughout the tournament.
“This is as bad as it gets. It is very difficult from here. We need to take this on our chin. Throughout this tournament we have been struggling. Not sure what’s going on the minds. Very unlike the Bangladesh team. The fans have been supporting us through our ups and downs.”