The Netherlands entered the World Cup with the goal of
reaching the semifinals, and during their opening game on Saturday, they were
elegantly living the talk.
In the tenth over, Pakistan was down to 38 for 3. The
score was 182 for 5 with about 20 overs left to bat, thanks to the efforts of
Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan, who were able to stop the tide but fell
within four overs of one another. These two incidents demonstrated that
Netherlands was capable of not only setting up a match but also turning the
tide if things went against them.
Scott Edwards was so inspired by everything that he
found himself feeling regretful during the lecture. The captain of the sole
Associate team competing in this World Cup thought they had the game under
control until they conceded.
“It’s probably one that got away,” Edwards
said. “I thought we were in a pretty good position to win. We know they
had quality bowlers throughout and they took through the middle there which
held us back.”
In their pursuit of 287, the Netherlands were 120 for
2. Vikramjit Singh had just reached the age of 50. Additionally, Bas de Leede
was on track to achieve a fifty after taking four wickets earlier in the day.
The back half of their batting order was then abruptly exposed as Shadab Khan
and Haris Rauf took three wickets in four overs. Particularly considering that
Logan van Beek, who was instrumental in getting them to the World Cup, appears
to be injured,
“I haven’t spoken to him [van Beek],”
Edwards said. “I think he was pretty keen to get out there. We’ll assess
that and see where he’s at.”
“It’s a little bit disappointing. I thought our
boys bowled and fielded really well. To Pakistan’s credit, they obviously made
a few runs at the end there. We felt like that was about a par score. At 2 for
120, we thought we were well and truly in the game.”