New Zealand meet Netherlands in a crucial Group 1 encounter at Chittagong in ICC World T20 2014. In a see-saw battle against South Africa, New Zealand lost their last game. On the other end of the spectrum, Netherlands too suffered the same fate against South Africa in a close encounter that went all the way.
On paper, New Zealand do have a fine side to come out of the contest with an easy win. The likes of Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum provide them with solidarity and firepower. They also have a slew of all-rounders to up the ante when needed. However, in the game against South Africa, they only fired in fits and starts.
Even their bowlers, on occasions, struggled to bowl with good control. Tim Southee in particular, struggled with his rhythm. The steady seamer, Kyle Mills and bowling all-rounder, Nathan McCullum though, bowled fine spells.
New Zealand need to up their game against Netherlands. Undoubtedly, despite giving South Africa a real fright in their last game, Netherlands still lack that quality. Yet, New Zealand can’t take them lightly.
In fact, New Zealand’s opponents, Netherlands, have shown that self-belief and never say die attitude in the tournament so far. They chased down a monstrous total against Ireland to qualify for Super 10s. In the Super 10s, they were dismissed for a paltry score of 39 against Sri Lanka. But bounced back in a fine fashion in the game against South Africa, only to lose in a tight contest. The likes of Stephan Myburgh, Peter Borren, the captain and Cooper brothers can play the big shots.
They have a competent bowling line-up made up of bowlers who tend to take pace off the ball. Actually, seamer, Ahsan Malik took a 5-for in the last game. It is remarkable that even without the likes of Ryan Ten Doeschate and Worcestershire’s key player, Alexi Kervezee, Netherlands have shown plenty of fight. For a side that doesn’t have bench strength, it is a tremendous achievement indeed.
With the game starting at 15.30 Bangladesh Standard Time (BST), the dew factor needn’t come into play. However, the captain winning the toss may still be tempted to field. Even though the tracks in Bangladesh have been on the slower side, batsmen should be able to play on the up and through the line.
New Zealand should be able to defeat an inexperienced side like Netherlands, but as we saw in the game against South Africa, Netherlands outfit isn’t overawed by the big occasion. In the shortest format of the game, there is always a window of opportunity to create an upset.
Squads:
Netherlands: Peter Borren (c), Stephan Myburgh, Wesley Barresi (wk), Logan van Beek, Tom Cooper, Ben Cooper, Michael Swart, Eric Szwarczynski, Vivian Kingma, Pieter Seelaar, Tom Heggelman, Mudassar Bukhari, Ahsan Malik, Timm van der Gugten , Michael Rippon.
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (c), Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson, Anton Devcich, Colin Munro, Ronnie Hira, Nathan McCullum, Luke Ronchi (wk), Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Jimmy Neesham.
(Bharath Ramaraj, an MBA in marketing, eats, drinks and sleeps cricket. He has played at school and college-level, and now channelises his passion for the game by writing about it)
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