By Suneer Chowdhary
The last time the two teams met in an international, Netherlands had stunned England in a T20 game. That was back in 2009 in the World T20 and since then the two have not played each other.
Published: Feb 21, 2011, 04:54 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 21, 2011, 04:54 PM (IST)
Matt Prior and Kevin Pietersen of England have a chat during the England nets session at Nagpur.
By Suneer Chowdhary
Nagpur: February 22, 2011
The last time the two teams met in an international, Netherlands had stunned England in a T20 game. That was back in 2009 in the World T20 and since then the two have not played each other. So, in the time and age when retribution is the flavour of the season, England will do well to avenge that loss to the Dutch side when the two sides meet in the fifth game of the World Cup at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium, here, on Tuesday.
Things have hardly gone right for England since the completion of the Ashes win. The momentum of that victory lasted all of one game as they beat Australia in the first T20I before going down in the second one and then in the seven match ODI series 6-1. So exhausting was their schedule that there were many of the Englishmen that began to fall by the wayside to injuries and by the time the ODIs were done, they were left with what was a pale shadow of where they had begun from.
True to form, Kevin Pietersen had lambasted whoever was responsible for the English schedule and for a change, not earned a reprimand for it.
Fortunately for England, they seem to be recovering well from their injuries. Stuart Broad, who was the first to leave Australia because of fitness concerns has scalped a couple of five-wicket hauls on his return in the practice games while James Anderson, Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad were all involved in those games without too many difficulties encountered.
Graeme Swann may miss out on this game as he returns to India after a brief paternity leave. On the other hand, Jonathon Trott, who has been England’s most consistent batsman in both forms of the game, was given the green signal to play after a finger-injury revealed no breakage.
This is not to say that the fitness travails were the only ones that England had on their mind. For long now, captain Andrew Strauss hasn’t had the best of time at the start of the innings. He will have a new partner opening the show with Kevin Pietersen. He is being asked to do the job in place of Matt Prior, who may have many other things on his mind behind the stumps. Keeping in the cauldron of the subcontinent can hardly be easy, especially with the tracks being as different from those back home as chalk is to cheese.
Thankfully, Paul Collingwood has exhibited signs of returning back to form and given the game against a relatively inexperienced bowling attack, he will have another chance to further his cause.
Netherlands will be mindful of the task in front of them. Under no illusions they will not only have to battle their much-improved opponents but also the conditions, which are quite dissimilar from those they would be used to playing on. In Ryan ten Doeschate they do have a world-class cricketer, but he needs much more support from the likes of Bas Zuiderent and Tom de Grooth. For someone who is as experienced as Zuiderent, he averages only 25 in ODIs and he will look to get the runs.
The big question in the Dutch camp will be on the availability of their captain, Peter Borren. Borren suffered from an abdominal strain and did not lead the side in either of their warm-up games but did come out to bat in their win over Kenya. His presence will provide a huge boost to the side.
Difficult to see the Orange side win at the Orange City!
Teams:
England (from): Andrew Strauss (capt), Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior(wk), Luke Wright, Michael Yardy, James Anderson, Ajmal Shahzad, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott.
Netherlands (from): Peter Borren (capt), Wesley Baressi (wk), Mudassar Bukhari, Atse Buurman, Tom Cooper, Tom de Grooth, Alexei Kervezee, Bradley Kruger, Bernard Loots, Adeel Raja, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Swarczynski, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Berend Westdijk, Bas Zuiderent.
Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and Bruce Oxenford (Australia).
Time: 14.30 local (09.00 GMT).
Pictures © Getty Images
