NEWS
Follow UsIt was pretty easy for New Zealand at the end. After scoring 322 in the sixth game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, they picked at regular intervals to restrict Netherlands to 223 at the end, securing a 99-run victory in the group stage game in Hyderabad. While Colin Ackermann held one end up for the Dutch side, his resistance ended on 69 when Mitchell Santner sent him back to the hut.
“You need those 100-run partnerships if you want to chase down 320,” Ackermann said in the post-match press conference. “So, we failed to do that again. We needed to set a firm base. I think we were 150 for four after 30 overs. So, we were kind of on track, but then we lost a couple of quick wickets after the 30th over. So, we needed to extend the partnerships, as you said.”
That said, the Netherlands could have shown better tenacity with their bowling as well. Even though Will Young and Rachin Ravindra had a partnership of 77 runs, the Netherlands had done well to restrict the run-flow, but then, towards the end, Santner played a breathtaking cameo to put the Kiwis back on track.
“Very disappointed with the result,” Ackermann said. “Probably felt that New Zealand got 30-40 too many runs today. We just struggled to take wickets throughout the innings, I think all their batters faced at least 40 balls in the top five. So, we struggled to peg them back, which resulted in them getting a good score on that wicket.
“It's only two games in. You know it doesn't tell the full story as well. Sometimes, you've got to try and take it as deep as possible, but then the rate keeps climbing. But these bowlers do make it difficult for us. They're not just going to give us easy boundaries in the middle overs. So yeah, I suppose we lost by 100 runs today but I think we just gave them too many runs. We shouldn't have chased 320, you know, maybe 280 - 290 would have been a decent chase today.”
After a seriously impressive performance in the World Cup qualifiers, the Netherlands didn’t shy away from speaking about their aspiration to make it to the ICC World Cup semi-finals. However a lot shot that might be, they have shown decent performances in patches, both against Pakistan and New Zealand, but the road will be tougher from here.
“We've played some good cricket in patches; we just haven't put together enough phases where we dominate. I think in the game against Pakistan, we did one in the power play. We took three early wickets. And we laid a solid foundation with a bat. But then we kind of fell away. So, we need to put together all three phases of the game to win,” the Dutch batter said.
