Colin Ackermann – We had the skills and capabilities to beat Bangladesh and it showed in our performance
The Netherlands remained in the chase until the end thanks to Ackermann’s knock as well as a helpful appearance of 24 from the last man Paul van Meekeren, who was equally upset about not getting over the line.
Regardless of being diminished to 15/4 in chase of 144, Netherlands figured out how to provide Bangladesh with somewhat of panic by hanging on until the last over and eventually falling short by only 9 runs.
A fabulous beginning by Taskin Ahmed who picked two in two coupled with the run-out of their top hitters in about three balls had taken the wind out of the Netherlands’ sails initially.
“We’re upset. We thought coming into this game that it was going to be a good match. That we had the skills and capabilities to beat Bangladesh and it showed in our performance, it was a closely contested match, and we needed those partnerships at the start of the innings to solidify our chase and it just didn’t happen, unfortunately,”
said Colin Ackermann who ended up top scoring with 62 in the chase.
“The first one [run out], I slipped, Maxi [Max O’Dowd] kind of admitted there was never two there. Never ideal having runouts, it was a bit chaotic so we needed to calm things down a bit. Obviously, two big batters for us – Maxy has been in fantastic form and Coops is rearing to go. So those were two big wickets, to be honest.”
“We kind of sat down before and identified this game as a game we can win. We know we have got the skills and capabilities in this team to beat full member nations. We felt like we could do it, it was a tightly contested match today, so I suppose it was a missed opportunity from our side today,”
he said.
Apart from the run-outs, it was Taskin who broke the Netherlands early with a double strike.
“If we didn’t lose those two wickets early, it was a completely different game,”
rued Ackermann.
“The wicket was quite skiddy tonight; they bowled in pretty good areas upfront. We couldn’t attack the powerplay because we lost those two wickets and then couldn’t play our natural game.”
The Netherlands remained in the chase until the end thanks to Ackermann’s knock as well as a helpful appearance of 24 from the last man Paul van Meekeren, who was equally upset about not getting over the line.
“We had a lot of games in the summer but a completely different team almost with the county guys not available,”
said Meekeren when asked if the lack of game-time played a part in them falling short in a close encounter.
“But the guys that we have in the playing eleven are pretty much all professional cricketers. We pride ourselves in our bowling and we gave Sri Lanka almost 15 easy runs away, and today we gave about 10 easy runs away. It’s not ideal but it’s a part of the game I guess. And then to have a part-timer bowling the 18th and 20th over…. if we hadn’t lost out heads with some stupid running.
“Don’t know, I’m not a batter,”
he replied when asked if it was just nerves.
“Maybe a bit of poor listening or communication, maybe the heart is pumping. Your beans are going… I guess these things can happen on the world stage. Sometimes the world stage gets a hold of you. But it shouldn’t be happening to the guys who it’s happening to be honest. But it is what it is,”
he opined.