Netherlands Shock England In Opening Match Of Twenty20 World Cup 2009

Courageous, Gutsy, Brave performance by the Netherlands to beat England in the opening match of the Twenty20 World Cup. There are too many superlatives that can be said about the Netherlands but for England it was a poor performance and after the first 10 overs they had no answers in any of the departments and the pressure got the better of hem.

Expect the unexpected was what I predicted and it was exactly what we got and even more in this format it brings all the teams to a closer level and the unexpected can happen.

The typical British weather got the better of the cricket with the opening ceremony being abandoned and play being delayed by 20 minutes. It seemed nerves got the better of the Netherlands and England’s opening pair of Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara started off brightly. With England to have lost there first wicket for 102 in the 11th over and to score only 60 runs in the last 9 overs was the deciding factor in the final result. England’s inability to hit the ball out of the ground raises even more questions about the team selection. With Flintoff already ruled out and Pietersen out to injury not to select Machernas or Napier instead of Robert Key was bizarre and in hindsight it is easy to say.

With a score of 162 England should have had enough but they lost momentum to the Netherlands at the end of there innings even with losing a wicket in the opening over it did not stop them to attack and scored runs quite easily. Reekers, man of the match De Grooth and Borren all played vital innings and between them they scored 4 sixes compared to England 0. At the half way stage Netherlands were ahead of the D/L and the pressure was getting to England as they fielding was shoddy and missed a numerous runs outs but as the end drew closer the pressure also got to Netherlands and they lost wickets but they still continued to play there shots.

Collingwood’s captaincy has to be questioned firstly with the team selection and then his bowling choices where he opted to continue with Rashid who looks very promising but got hit and also with the medium pacers instead of going to his strike bowlers. Netherlands required 7 of the last over and it was Stuart Broad who had the ball and to stop England from facing an embarrassing defeat and in the first three balls they scored three runs and also three chance of runs out which did not materialize. Of the final ball Netherlands needed 1 runs to draw and go to a super over and 2 runs to win and a tumble from Stuart Broad who aimed for the stumps and went for over throws and allowed Netherlands to there first major victory over a major international team.

Group B is wide open with any of the three teams can still qualify and the possibility for England to be knocked out is very much possible like it was in World Cup 1999. This result is a stern warning to rest of the major international teams to be aware and be top of there game otherwise we will be seeing many more upsets.

Netherlands were running around Lords as they had won the Twenty20 World Cup but could we see that on Sunday 21st June, expect the unexpected.