It started its World Cup sojourn with a fortnight-long preparatory camp in Bengaluru. On Sunday, it will end its topsy-turvy ride in the Garden City, that too against table-topper India. Despite the Netherlands being placed at the bottom of the points table and India rolling over each of its opponents so far, the Dutch aren’t throwing in the towel.
“It’s a game of cricket, right, so, it could be possible. We play our brand of cricket. We do what we do well. We have got some great manoeuvrers of the ball. We have got guys who can play spin well. We have also got guys who can take wickets,” the Netherlands batter Teja Nidamanuru said after being walloped by England on Wednesday night.
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“Obviously you need a bit of luck. There is no doubt that they are a very strong team and they have been playing very good cricket. But funnier things have happened in the game.”
The highlight of the Netherlands’ World Cup campaign has been its win against South Africa. But the Dutch outfit — the lone non-Test playing nation to have qualified for the marquee event — let England off the hook after reducing the World champion side to 192 for six.
Despite the loss, Nidamanuru, whose unbeaten 41 was the highest score for the Netherlands on Wednesday, drew positives from the World Cup campaign for his team.
“We pride ourselves on being able to evolve and grow, which this exposure against the top nine teams in the world has done for us. So being in the last place, that’s the cricket that we’re playing right now,” he said.
“I am sure that we will pick ourselves up and move forward in the coming tournaments. We have the T20 World Cup next year that we have already qualified for, so that’s another opportunity for us to build towards. I have no doubt that we will definitely be causing a few upsets there and playing well and wanting to play in the semifinals as well.”
