The Netherlands cricket team has been one of the success stories of the ongoing ODI World Cup thus far. A country in which cricket is still trying to find acceptance among the fans amidst the massive fan following of football, their cricket team has impressed many this year in the showpiece ICC event.
Netherlands first played in a World Cup match in 1996 but it was the 2003 edition in South Africa when they managed to register their first-ever victory – against Namibia. The same happened when the Dutch outclassed Scotland in the 2007 mega event, in the Caribbean shores. However, both wins didn’t create much of an impact considering both Namibia and Scotland were not the strongest of sides.
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Meanwhile, after a horrible 2011 WC, the Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2015 and 2019 events. The Dutch bounced back emphatically and qualified for the ongoing World Cup via qualifier – they even beat two-time World Champions West Indies. The campaign was even more remarkable considering they did not have the services of their three first-choice players – who opted out of the qualifiers citing more lucrative county deals.
The Dutch started off well in the 2023 mega event with an impressive show against Pakistan where they put up a solid fight but the batters failed to hold their nerves and lost the match. It didn’t work out well for them versus New Zealand.
However, they learned from their mistakes and produced one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history by beating South Africa. And it was the win which made shockwaves which were missing from their first two wins in the earlier editions.
The Dutch stars also showed great character against Sri Lanka in their previous match where they managed to score 266 from a stage where they were six down for just 91. They fought hard but the Lankan side emerged victorious in the end.
More than half of the tournament is still left and the Netherlands are not looking to slow down after beating the Proteas. With a good mix of senior and young talents, the Dutch have all the ability to produce another mega-upset as they are yet to face Australia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, England and India.
They will next pose a challenge in front of Australia and young opener Vikramjit Singh in an exclusive conversation with News18 CricketNext talked about facing five-time World Cup champions and Netherlands’ journey thus far in the tournament. The southpaw was born in Punjab and moved permanently to the Netherlands at the age of 7.
Vikramjit was one of the few players who took part in Dutch’s optional practice session on Monday as he faced spinners in the nets to get ready for Adam Zampa who has been in terrific form.
The southpaw asserted that he worked on targeting the short boundaries at Arun Jaitley Stadium against the Aussie spinners.
“Adam Zampa bowled well in the last game but we know it can turn a little bit here and obviously, the boundaries are quite small, so we just working on facing spin and capitalizing the small boundaries and see if we can score some runs in that factor,” Vikramjit told News18 CricketNext after the optional net session on Monday.
Australia, who entered the tournament as favourites, had a shaky start with back-to-back losses to India and South Africa but they bounced back in their last two matches.
Netherlands are wary of Australia’s form as Vikramjit suggested that the Dutch might enter the contest with higher confidence than the five-time World Champions.
“Obviously, we’ve seen like doesn’t matter how good of a team you are you see Australia has matches in a row, for us being on a high coming off a win against South Africa a great win. For us, it’s just another game of cricket and we are going to try to win,” the southpaw said.
Vikramjit is on the verge of completing his 1000 runs in ODIs with five matches it’s highly likely for him to achieve the milestone soon.
The 20-year-old started off the tournament with a fine half-century versus Pakistan where he displayed a fighting character. However, after that 52-run knock, it went a bit downhill for him with scores of 12, 2 and 4 in the following matches.
Talking about his form, Vikram said even the likes of batting greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli can’t score 100 every game.
“Cricket is a funny game, doesn’t always go your own way. Doesn’t matter if you’re Virat or Sachin you’re not going to score 100 every single game, but for me nothing changes, I am gonna keep batting the way I bat. And when it’s my day, I will make a big day out of it,” he added.
The southpaw further talked about the Netherlands’s campaign thus far and said that the important thing for the team is to be level-headed irrespective of the results.
“I mean the atmosphere is great in the team. We are playing gun cricket and that’s most important for us, doesn’t matter if you win or lose but for us to just keep levelheaded and then just focus on the next game and try to win every single game that we’re here,” he added.
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