Image Credit- ICC
Bas de Leede, an all-around player for the
Netherlands, is clear about his team’s goals for the World Cup.
To begin with, they do not consider themselves to be
Associates. They desire a level playing field with the big boys. There is no
greater motive, in de Leede’s opinion, than that.
The day before their opening match in Hyderabad
against Pakistan, he declared, “We want to make the semi-finals.”
Given that Netherlands haven’t participated in an ODI since the World Cup
Qualifiers in June, many people may find it to be an unrealistic ideal.
The nature of the wickets presented a difficulty when
they landed in India in late September for two exhibition matches versus
Karnataka. They struggled in the first game, going 3 for 8 before making 114 in
an attempt to reach 266. They scored 295 in the second but fell short by one
wicket.
The Netherlands’ two World Cup warm-up matches against
Australia and India were both cancelled, and Mitchell Starc destroyed their top
order in the scant action that was left. It served as a warning about what to
expect from Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf.
In order to uphold their English county commitments,
several first-choice players missed the Netherlands’ illustrious run in the
World Cup Qualifiers. Thanks to Durham, De Leede was one of those who arrived
in Zimbabwe.
“We obviously don’t get to play together as a
team very often because guys are spread out,” he said. “But I think
the learnings we can take from Karnataka was, first of all, it was nice to play
together as a team and try and adapt to Indian conditions.
“It was a shame that the warm-up games got rained
off. But I think in the nets, we try and replicate game scenarios and try and
be as competitive as we can when bowling to each other, when facing each
other.”