Netherlands' ICC World Cup 2011 bid: Aiming for the Numbers or migraine from the orange?
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is slowly gearing up and another clash with the minnows awaits today. England take on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 on the 22nd of February, 2011 in Nagpur, India and it will be interesting, to say the least, how the result
will unravel.
The clash lacks the element of surprise, unless the English team starts the sprinkler dance after taking their first Powerplay. But even if the wires trip in the stadium, the match still will be lacking the element of surprise.
But what can be surprising is to see how Cricket and orange amalgamates. Netherlands aim to do just that. They have a history with the gentleman’s sports, going back to more than a century and is said to be introduced by the British soldiers who were
fighting during the Napoleonic Wars that ran from 1803 to 1815.
Cricket is Netherlands 25th favourite sport, not bad considering there are around six thousand cricketers in the country. The Royal Dutch Cricket Association has been in their country since 1930s and is older than many clubs
brewing in Australia and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760.
The existing cricket clubs now share the sports facilities and the funds with their most popular national sport, football. So it seems as if Netherlands are really serious about the game. However, it is such a shame that the ICC decided against the
associate teams to play in the next edition of the World Cup 2015. For now, they can just settle in Group B where they will be seeking upsets against the likes of World Cup favourites, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, and ‘chokers’ South Africa.
The Dutch team has been participating in the 1996, 2003, and 2007 editions of the cricket’s biggest extravaganza’s stage but their 2007 World Cup bid was more like a rocky horror picture show, with a different set of jaws. They managed to score around
350 or so against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 was their only consolation.
Four years down the road, their orange shirts are garnering much attention and their star player - the very handsome Ryan ten Doeschate - is creating enough buzz. The hoopla contributed due to his Indian Premier League (IPL) selling price tag. Their
batting line up might be a bit difficult to break down since everything rests on the shoulders of the all-rounder while the bowling attacks also rest on his shoulders.
They might escape from the tournament by winning a game against the lucky Irish men in Group B, and daresay, a win against the West Indies or co-hosts http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747, that might make the ambitious men in orange squeeze some fresh juice from the International
cricket scene. But all this is genuine hope.
For now, they will be battling the English men and they have quite a history against Her Majesty’s squad. The Dutch men had their finest moment in International cricket when they won a Twenty20 match in the Lord’s back in 2009. In a 50-over format
of the game, they have beaten England twice back in 1989 and 1993.
In 1989, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749 XI but they lost by three runs and four years later they were again hammered by seven wickets, failing to defend a mere score of 188.
The current team lacks consistency as they only boosts of three players who are on central contracts. They look the strongest out of the Associate teams batting wise since they have the highest batting average guy in their team.
Ryan Doeschate has established himself as a “limited-overs freelancer” raking-in enough experience from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 to Australian domestic circuit. They also have Alexei Kervezee who also established himself as an exciting heavy run scorer, have some
quick fifties to his name.
Apart from Kervezee, there is the right and left arm-spin pair of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Kashif-c77048, or Pieter Seelar. But the blaring orange team is all about ten Doeschate.
And of course, the ghastly bright orange will provide us enough entertainment during the match if the English players failed to give us the sprinkler dance.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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