We were confident of chasing 49 in five overs: Ryan Cook

A 25-run margin often reflects at a fairly one-sided contest in a T20 game. However, that wasn’t exactly the case in the Netherlands’ defeat against Bangladesh in St Vincent on Thursday (June 13). 

Chasing 160, Netherlands were in the game for most of their run chase. They laid the foundation in the beginning with the top order scoring at least one boundary in each of the first seven overs. Vikramjit Singh’s 16-ball 26 provided the boost in the first 10 overs. In the second half, Sybrand Engelbrecht and Scott Edwards forged a 42-run stand for the fourth wicket. Netherlands needed 56 off 36 balls with seven wickets in hand. 

However, they slipped and managed only 30 runs in the last six overs. Mustafizur Rahman’s spell of 1/12 in his four overs alongside Rishad Hossain’s 3/33 choked Netherlands at the business end of their chase. 

Ryan Cook, the Netherlands’ head coach, said they were quite confident to win from that positon. 

“We put ourselves in a good position with a good partnership with Scott [Edwards] and Sybrand [Englebrecht] and you know with 49 to win off the last five overs we're confident that we'll be able to chase those down,” he said. 

“We set the run chase up pretty much exactly like we wanted to. We thought we could probably get those runs off the last five overs,” he added further. 

The head coach praised Mustafizur Rahman for his thrifty spell, calling it the point of difference between the two sides. Bowling the 17th and 19th overs, the left-armer conceded only four runs, thus shutting the door down on the Dutch batters. 

“I've been in the other dressing room when Mr. Fizz [Mustafizur Rahman] has been bowling those balls and watching guys swing and miss so to watch it from the other side now is a bit tougher but no the guys will obviously take a lot of experience away from that and it is something that we prepared for just weren't able to execute on the day.

“Credit to Fizz and all the other bowlers who bowled really well, used the conditions well and obviously us losing wickets never helped the momentum and too many dot balls at the end,” he said in praise of the Bangladeshi bowlers. 

Cook felt Bangladesh, carried by Shakib Al Hasan’s 64 not out, scored a few runs too many. “Probably on that wicket and assessing it when both teams have batted, they probably got a few too many runs there, a couple too many big overs and this led to a chase that was always going to be challenging especially at the back end with some of the experienced bowlers as you mentioned,” he said. 

With their second defeat in a row, Netherlands are still in the hunt for a spot in the Super 8s but their fortunes are not entirely in their control. They need to win their last group game but also need a few results to go their way in order to qualify.

Playing Sri Lanka in their final group game, Cook said his side will take confidence from the warm-up game where Netherlands beat Sri Lanka by 20 runs. 

“We will have to obviously take some net run rate into account now and be hoping for some other results to go our way. At the end of the day, we can't control that. We just have to play a really good game of cricket against Sri Lanka. 

“We will take some real pride in the fact that we beat them in the warm-up game and we have come close to them on several occasions in the last year or so. So, I think it'll be a good game of cricket between two very good teams,” he said. 

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