ICC WC 2011 - III (Dutch Courage)

England vs Netherlands (22 Feb 2011)

England supporters must consider themselves very lucky that England managed to squeeze out a win against the Dutch. Before the match, all the experts were talking about how England needed to "make a statement" which I think England ended up doing, but not quite the statement that they would have wished to make.

The English commentators were running out of ways to describe England's poor performance in the field which in my view seemed more like a lack of motivation. Given that the Dutch had beaten England the last time around, it should have been the opposite, ie. England to have an excess of motivation to ensure that there was no repeat. Another aspect is also likely to be that the World Cup is coming immediately after a grueling Ashes tour Down Under where despite the Test win, they were thumped badly in the one-dayers.

Back to the match, the Dutch without seeming to be on top of the bowling were still managing a respectable run rate of close to 5 for the first 40 overs. Ryan ten Doeschate (a name which is likely to become much more familiar to Indian fans since he has been signed up by KKR in the IPL), played very well and was not troubled at all by the bowling. The English bowlers were in general OK, with Swann being very tidy without seeming dangerous, though Anderson was very disappointing. James Anderson is considered one of the top 5 bowlers in the world today though whoever saw today's performance would be hard pressed to believe it.

England were plain shoddy in the field, with a couple of absolute sitters being grassed, Swann's miss in the last couple of overs was particularly terrible as also a mix-up where the ball dropped mid-way between mid-wicket and long-on and two fielders stopped short thinking the other was going for it. It could happen to any team, but to have multiple such occurences on the same day has to be a worrying factor for England.

Before you knew it, the Dutch had posted 292 and there was no easy way to win for England. Luckily, their batsmen bailed them out with all the top order contributing. Pietersen looked good but was strangely subdued when he should have gone hell for leather once he was set. The rate kept mounting till Collingwood and Bopara hit out towards the end though the Dutch could have ran them closer with tighter bowling in the middle overs.

England have a lot of thinking to do before their Sunday match against India and the Dutch must be ruing a missed opportunity.

The rest of the matches to date have been quite ordinary, with Australia managing to struggle against Zimbabwe whereas New Zealand and Sri Lanka managed comfortable wins.