The Netherlands will look to continue their giant-killing streak in ICC tournaments as they face Nepal in the first match on 4th June in Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas, Texas. The Netherlands stunned Sri Lanka in the first warm-up match yesterday.
The Netherlands will face South Africa in their second match in New York on 8th June, followed by Bangladesh on the 13th at St Vincent. Their final group game will be against Sri Lanka on 16th June at St Lucia. Netherlands qualified for the Super 12 stage getting rid of Ireland and Namibia in the 2022 edition of the World Cup.
They performed brilliantly giving tough times to top teams and eventually knocked out South Africa. Netherlands first appearance came during the 2009 T20 World Cup in England. They stunned hosts England in the first match of the tournament. Since then, the Netherlands played a total of 5 T20 World Cups so far.
Netherlands played a total of 23 matches with 9 wins, 13 losses, and 1 no-result. Their best performance came during the 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup where they progressed through the Super 12 stage from the qualifying round.
Strengths
The Netherlands has quality all-rounders namely Bas de Leede, Saqib Zulfiqar, and Logan Van Beek who can contribute to the team’s success with both bat and ball. Max O Dowd had a memorable tournament with the bat for the Netherlands in the 2022 edition of the World Cup.
Max O Dowd opened the innings with 242 runs from 8 matches (8 innings) including the best score of 71 not out. He batted according to the situation with 2 half-centuries to his name. The Netherlands bowling looks impressive with Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren, Logan Van Beek, and Bas de Leede who can create pressure on the batting with discipline lines and lengths not allowing the batters to score runs easily.
Bas de Leede had an impressive tournament for the Netherlands with 13 wickets from 8 matches (8 innings) at an economy of 7.68 runs per over including best figures of 3 for 19. Paul Van Meekeren also had an impressive performance with the ball grabbing 11 wickets from 8 matches (8 innings) at an economy of 6.38 runs per over including best figures of 3 for 29.
Weakness
The Netherlands struggled to face top-quality spin. They need batters to showcase their skills against bowling which would trouble them in the middle overs. Scott Edwards and other Netherlands batters need to prove their worth with some sensible batting.
The Netherlands will miss the services of Roelf Van der Merwe and Colin Ackermann due to various reasons.
Opportunities
The Netherlands has another chance to showcase to the world their skills. They stunned with some lovely performances in the 2022 World T20 defeating South Africa to knock them out of the tournament.
They have experienced players with captain Scott Edwards, Logan Van Beek, Paul Van Meekeren, Wessely Barresi, and Max O Dowd who has played for a long time. They need to step up to the occasion ensuring that they can upset or qualify for the Super 8 stage.
Threats
The Netherlands’ major threat is to face the likes of Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Bangladesh with lots of experience.
They struggle against big teams which might derail their chances of qualifying for the next round. If they start on a losing note against Nepal, the Netherlands could struggle with their performance in the remaining matches.
Squads
Aryan Dutt, Bas de Leede, Kyle Klein, Logan van Beek, Max O’Dowd, Michael Levitt, Paul van Meekeren, Saqib Zulfiqar, Scott Edwards, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Teja Nidamanuru, Tim Pringle, Vikram Singh, Viv Kingma, Wesley Barresi.
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