Netherlands’ frontline seamer Logan Van Beek is in doubt for the New Zealand game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad on Monday, owing to a hamstring niggle.
Van Beek had complained about niggle during Netherlands’ first game against Pakistan at the same venue on 6th October. Van Beek, 33, had picked up the wicket of Fakhar Zaman early in the piece – a caught and bowled – but could only manage to bowl six overs thereafter giving away 30 runs.
“You might have noticed Logan Van Beek had a little niggle in the hamstring during the Pakistan game. He is still being assessed and we will take a late decision tomorrow whether he will play the game or not,” a team spokesperson informed reporters ahead of the pre-match press conference.
No update on the possible replacement was given. However, looking at their squad, the Netherlands could pick one from either 26-year-old Ryan Klein or 20-year-old Shariz Ahmed if Van Beek is not cleared to play tomorrow. While Klein has played 12 ODIs for the Dutch, Ahmed has 11 to his name. Klein was part of the Dutch side that played the final of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers against Sri Lanka.
Smarting from their loss to Pakistan in the first game, which skipper Scott Edwards said that they should have won, and now potentially losing Van Beek could be a big blow for the side as they prepare to take on New Zealand, who are riding high after thrashing England in the tournament opener at Ahmedabad earlier this week.
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The team’s senior pro Roelof Van Der Merwe said that the key will be to execute the plan whichever team they are playing and put the opposition under pressure.
“Look I think every team has plans to batters and tomorrow’s how well we can execute those plans to put them under pressure and I mean those two guys [Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra] played a great partnership in the previous game but you know we’ve got our plans to get them out and as we said earlier put pressure on them. They are a very organized skilful team so we know what we’re up against – a quality team but if we play the way we play and execute how we want to – we can put them under pressure and win the game,” said Van Der Merwe.
Against Pakistan, the Dutch side showed glimpses of their resilience and both with the ball and bat had Pakistan under the pump for a brief while. The allrounder conceded that the learnings from that game are just about sustaining the pressure for a longer period in ODIs.
“We had Pakistan under a bit of pressure there. Everybody knows that. The learning from that is we’ve got to do it for longer and that’s been discussed and if you compare it to T20 cricket, it is 30 overs longer. So, it speaks for itself we need to do it for longer and yeah put them under pressure for longer,” he added.
In terms of having an advantage over New Zealand because they have played on the surface before, Van Der Merwe opined that the wicket is a ‘good cricket wicket’, with a bit of turn.
“It’s a good surface. There was something for the bat and ball. If you played well on there you could score runs. We do have a bit more intel. We’ve played on the surface, obviously not the same wicket, but we’ve got a bit of info on it. And it’s a good cricket wicket. Boundaries are pretty even,
and there is a bit of turn. There’s a bit of movement for the seamer. So, if you play good cricket, you can reap the rewards,” he added.
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