Netherlands are flying the flag for the Associate teams at the World Cup, and they have the power to push some of the bigger teams hard, as they have done before

Firdose Moonda01-Oct-20233:10

Can Netherlands rely on individual brilliance on the big stage?

World Cup pedigree
Netherlands are the only Associate nation at this tournament, earning their spot after finishing second in the World Cup qualifier, ahead of three Full Members: Ireland, West Indies and Zimbabwe. This is their first appearance at the tournament since the last time it was played in the subcontinent, in 2011, and only the fourth in their history. They made their debut in 1996 and lost all five matches they played. They have since competed in 2003, 2007 and 2011, and across four tournaments won two games – against Namibia in 2003 and against Scotland in 2007.Recent form
There’s very little to speak of here because the lopsided nature of international cricket scheduling means Netherlands go for long periods without playing a lot. Their last competitive matches were in July, at the qualifiers, where they announced themselves with a statement win over West Indies in a Super Over after scores were tied at 374. They chased 278 inside 43 overs against Scotland to book their berth for India but before that tournament, had a gruelling World Cup Super League campaign. Netherlands won only three of the 24 ODIs they played and lost series to Afghanistan, New Zealand, West Indies, England, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and South Africa. That may make for demoralising reading but Netherlands didn’t mind too much because they got the opportunity to play against high-quality opposition often and credited it with helping them improve. Not to forget, when they finished in the top two at the qualifiers, they were without some of their best players – Colin Ackermann, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren, Fred Klaassen, Timm van der Gugten and Brandon Glover – who were all busy playing for their counties. The first three of those are in the World Cup squad.Related

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Squad
Colin Ackermann, Shariz Ahmad, Wesley Barresi, Bas de Leede, Aryan Dutt, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Sybrand Engelbrecht, Ryan Klein, Teja Nidamanuru, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren, Saqib ZulfiqarKey players
Teja Nidamanuru is one of several Dutch cricketers who holds down a day job – his is a product manager for a technology company – while also trying to compete against the best in the world at cricket, and he has been remarkably successful at both. He scored Netherlands’ first ODI century since 2014 during their series against Zimbabwe in March this year and topped up with a second hundred three months later in their win over West Indies. Nidamanuru has the ability to build an innings and can be both the anchor around which more naturally aggressive players like Vikramjit Singh, Max O’Dowd or Logan van Beek can bat, and the perfect strike-rotation partner to the industrious Scott Edwards. He was born in Vijayawada in southern India, so this tournament will be a homecoming of sorts for him.Rising star
Bas de Leede is a top-notch allrounder in the making. He made his international debut at 18 and has caught the eye of leagues such as the ILT20 and the Hundred. He is the leading wicket-taker for Netherlands in 2023, with 15 wickets at 22.13, and scored his first ODI century against Scotland at the qualifiers – the innings that ensured Netherlands would get to India. De Leede’s father, Tim, played 29 ODIs for Ntetherlands between 1996 and 2007, including at three World Cups and Bas’ inclusion in the 2023 squad means there has been a family presence in all but one of the Netherlands’ campaigns.World Cup farewells
Wesley Barresi and Roelof van der Merwe are 39 and 38 respectively and may see this tournament as a swansong in the format. Barresi is the only member of the current squad to have played in a 50-over World Cup and has already retired once, in February 2021. After an 18-month break, he made a comeback in August 2022 and is a core member of the squad. Van der Merwe occupies a similarly senior position after making his name as South Africa’s “bulldog”, and then transferring his tenacity to Netherlands in 2015. He has played 39 T20Is but just three ODIs for Netherlands, so if he is selected for every match at this World Cup, he will complete a dozen caps for two international teams.

He may have netted AUD 4 million at the IPL auction but the way he has been bowling in 2023 makes him worth so much more to his country

Alex Malcolm24-Dec-2023American actor Lee Majors was famously The Six Million Dollar Man. Mitchell Starc became Australia’s AUD 4 million man last week at the IPL auction.Like the fictional bionic man, Starc has been an iron man with the ball, powering through a year that included a Test tour to India, a World Test Championship final, an away Ashes where he was Australia’s Player of the Series, and an ODI World Cup.His pace and strike ability with the ball have remained high throughout, despite the odd dip in form and a lingering groin issue that is much more than a niggle despite his preference to play it down publicly.And two days out from the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan, despite netting a small fortune in his first IPL auction for five years, he has vowed to continue to prioritise Test cricket for as long as his body will let him.”Red ball is still top of the tree for me,” Starc said on Sunday at the MCG. “I think my body will let me know about Test cricket before probably I want to [stop]. It’s an opportunity next year, in terms of the [Australian] winter, it’s a lot quieter. There’s no Test match between the one in New Zealand in March and the summer next year. Obviously there’s a T20 World Cup. It’s a nice lead into that with the IPL and the quality of cricket that that tournament presents.”As eye-watering as Starc’s auction price was, it would seem impossible not to think about the amount of money he has potentially left on the table having not entered the IPL auction for five years and not played in the tournament since 2015. But Starc has not given it a second thought. His preference to have every April and May off to spend time with his wife, Australia women’s captain Alyssa Healy, has trumped any potential earnings in that period.0:34

Healy: IPL record buy a justification for Starc’s choices

“I’ve always said whenever asked, I’ve prioritised Test cricket, certainly prioritise international cricket and juggling one cricket schedule is hard enough that alone when there’s two in a relationship,” Starc said. “I’ve always spent that time away from cricket with Alyssa or time with family and recharging my body for being as fit and as ready as I can for Australian cricket so I don’t regret any of it. I think it’s certainly helped my Test cricket. As I’ve said before, the money’s always nice and certainly is this year but I’ve always prioritised international cricket and I think that’s helped my game.”His commitment to international cricket and his desire to continue to improve as a bowler have never been more evident than this year.The groin issues he battled out of the Ashes series were far more serious than he has let on. Yet he only missed one white-ball tour of South Africa and one match in the World Cup, and even then he was rested at the behest of the selectors and the medical staff, not by personal choice.Related

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There were serious concerns about how he would recover coming out of the tournament, to the point where Australia’s selectors and medical staff carefully managed Western Australia tearaway Lance Morris’ start to the domestic summer to ensure he was cherry ripe if needed for the first Test against Pakistan.But Starc turned up in Perth in superb shape and bowled with high pace throughout the match. His ability to withstand the rigours of a brutal schedule this year, that included eight Test matches on three continents and 14 ODIs, has been undersold. Pat Cummins has only played one more international than Starc and only bowled 44 more overs in total without a lingering groin problem, while the less explosive Josh Hazlewood has played two fewer Tests than Starc and bowled 37 fewer overs.The four million dollar man: Mitchell Starc at the MCG after his IPL payday•Getty Images”There were a number of things to manage all that,” Starc said. “Preparation [being] one, I think I’d tweaked a few things just to manage some pain, but I came out of the back end of the World Cup in a better place than I started and was able to manage that well, obviously with the medicos as well. I sort of tailored my prep or my training. I’m probably doing less than I probably would have wanted to.”As impressive as Starc’s durability has been, he is still searching for improvement in his technical skills, even with 83 Tests and 338 wickets under his belt. He picked up two wickets in the first innings in Perth with two superb deliveries. He had Shan Masood caught behind late on day two with a ball that swung late. He then uprooted Sarfaraz Ahmed’s off stump with a searing 140kph conventional inswinger with a 76-over-old ball.But he got a little wayward at the back end of the first innings which prompted him to do something he had never done before. After Australia had bowled out Pakistan for 271 in 101.5 overs, with Starc having delivered 25 overs himself, he went straight to the nets out the back of Perth Stadium and kept bowling to try and fix a technical issue in his action with the help of coach Andrew McDonald and bowling coach Daniel Vettori.”I just felt in the first inning something wasn’t working quite the way I wanted it to and what probably frustrated me was that I couldn’t work it out at the time,” Starc said.”I’m certainly in a place where I’ve played enough cricket to problem solve on my own or be quicker than my younger self. So, whilst I was up and going I just felt like I wanted to do it then rather than sleep on it or try and get up and bowl in the morning whilst we were batting. It only took a dozen balls to work it out and it was much better for the second innings.”I thought my front side wasn’t working the way it should, but it was actually my arm path in my bowling arm.”With his action cleaned up, he cleaned up Pakistan’s top-order in the second innings with a blistering spell, taking 3 for 31 as Australia bowled Pakistan out for just 89.Two days later Starc became the AUD 4 million man. But he remains a priceless asset to Australia’s Test team and fully committed one at that.

His strong presence at the top has allowed his opening partner Rahmanullah Gurbaz to attack, and given the middle order a platform

Firdose Moonda29-Oct-2023At least, there will no net run-rate calculations here, and already it is “the best ever tournament for us in the World Cup history”, as Hashmatullah Shahidi put it. But it can get even better for Afghanistan.With more wins at this World Cup than the previous two combined and on the same number of points as three other teams, the semi-finals are still a possibility – albeit an outside one – and finishing in the top seven is very much within sight. The latter is of increasing importance because, as ESPNcricinfo confirmed on Sunday, it will guarantee a place in the eight-team Champions Trophy 2025. To be among the elite has always been Afghanistan’s goal and so far, they have shown that they are getting closer.Their victories over England and Pakistan were not just a takedown of teams that are bigger and have better resources than them, but were achieved in opposite ways to show that Afghanistan are dangerous in both departments.Related

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In Delhi, they defended what was considered a below-par score of 284 and kept England to 215; in Chennai, they completed their highest successful chase in ODIs and the highest against Pakistan at a World Cup. What was common to both results was the responsibility Afghanistan have placed on their young opening pair, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. The two 21-year-olds shared century stands on both occasions and have settled into a yang and yin style of play that, when it comes off, works.Gurbaz is the natural aggressor and tends to score quicker than Ibrahim, who seems to have moulded his one-day game on the foundations of his Test game, which is the format he made his international debut in. From an early age, Ibrahim was seen as a player with the temperament to bat for long periods of time. Against England, he took an hour and 13 minutes and faced 48 balls for 28 runs but provided steadiness while Gurbaz hit 80 off 57. Against Pakistan, in a tense situation given they were chasing, he scored at a quicker clip but still allowed Gurbaz to dominate with a 53-ball 65. He ended up with a match-winning 87 after spending more than two-and-a-half hours in the middle.Together, they are the only opening pair to have put on two century stands at this tournament and it comes from familiarity and form. “There have been many times Gurbaz and I had a brilliant partnership together. We’ve played a lot together, since Under-16 times, and we have good communication,” Ibrahim said after receiving the Player-of-the-Match award for the Pakistan game. “It was another good start. The Pakistan bowlers gave us some tough times but the way Gurbaz gave me support helped me play well.”All that is not to say Ibrahim doesn’t have an attacking game of his own. He is a strong ball-striker whose standout feature is timing rather than power, and he has only hit one six compared to 22 fours in the tournament so far. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, Ibrahim’s most productive shot is the cover drive – he has scored 46 runs off 43 balls in the tournament playing that stroke – followed by the cut and the square drive, illustrative of his strong off-side play.Against England, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran added 79 in the first ten overs – the most for Afghanistan in ODI World Cups•ICC/Getty ImagesAll that sets him up well to show off his skills against Sri Lanka, a team that he has (good) history against. Ibrahim was the leading run-scorer in Afghanistan’s recent series against Sri Lanka – and top-scored with 98 in the game they won – and has scored two of his four hundreds against them. It’s an opposition he seems to enjoy playing against and he has shown an aptitude for rising to important occasions in general. Importantly, he has done his bit in providing a platform to a somewhat shaky middle-order that, Shahidi recognised, relies on the young opening pair. “When our team gives us good momentum, we try to take that momentum, move forward and we think about that,” Shahidi said at the pre-match press conference.He gave nothing else away, including how he has re-found his own touch: “I talked with the coach Jonathan [Trott] about my batting and he gave me a good idea. I can’t share it here”; or how he is going to manage his array of spinners: “I will not tell you that”; but he was clear that the consistency in selection Afghanistan have had over the last two years is starting to pay off.Ibrahim was first picked for them in 2019, as a teenager, and with the pandemic pausing fixtures for about two years after that, has spent the last two years cementing his spot at the top. At 21, he has already become the fastest Afghanistan batter to 1000 ODI runs – in 24 innings – and has the best average among all their ODI batters: 49.27. In 2020, he was identified as one of ESPNcricinfo’s 20 players for the 2020s and three years into the decade he is proving to be a good choice.Then, he said his wish was to help the children of his country, through sport or education. He has since displayed both maturity and awareness of the difficulties facing compatriots including the devastation of the recent earthquake and the struggles of many Afghan migrants. His runs won’t materially change their lives but it may provide a sliver of sunshine in otherwise dark times.

Clashes with other franchise tournaments and withdrawal of marquee names have taken some sheen off the league, but the local stars are still there

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2024It’s February, which means it must be time for the end of the SA20.
No.The ILT20?
Try again.The Bangladesh Pr…
I’m going to stop you right there. The PSL. It’s time for the PSL, the original showstopper of this window in the calendar.My bad. It’s been around for a while now.
Indeed, this season is the ninth season of the PSL, which makes it a veteran among T20 franchise leagues. The durability is truly worth celebrating given the obstacles it faced in getting off the ground and then, once up and running, not able to play out in Pakistan for the first few seasons.Hurrah! The league must be stronger than ever, then.
Not so much. In large part this is because of the administrative flux within the board over the last few months. Nobody’s been in charge long enough to really take charge of this season. Plus, polarising general elections in the country last week have taken up plenty of the national bandwidth.Ah right. Still, some big-name regulars on the global T20 circuit will perk things up.
All the big local stars are there, of course, from Shaheen Shah Afridi to Babar Azam to Mohammad Rizwan to Shadab Khan. And in Shane Watson (Quetta Gladiators), Mike Hesson (Islamabad United), Phil Simmons (Karach Kings) and Daren Sammy (Peshawar Zalmi) the league has a high-profile head coach roster.Related

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I’m sensing a ‘but’…
Well, the star quotient in the foreign player roster seems to have taken a hit this season. A number of high-profile names have either pulled out entirely (Rashid Khan, Lungi Ngidi, Reece Topley, Noor Ahmad and Tom Curran) or have limited availability (Rassie van der Dussen, Tabraiz Shamsi and Wanindu Hasaranga).But there’s also a broader sense that with more money on offer in the ILT20 and SA20, and in more attractive destinations, the PSL might be the league the bigger names choose to skip in this cramped window.Now I’m sensing an ‘although’ here.
, like the CPL, the accent at the PSL has always been towards its local players. Think of the number of established local players it has given a platform to, as well as the frenzy each season as a new kid is unearthed. Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Ihsanullah, Mohammad Haris, Zaman Khan and so, so many others are inextricably linked with the league.Similarly, this season will be driven by the prospects of Saim Ayub stepping up, the bigger stage for the tall and rising fast bowler Mohammad Zeeshan (both at Peshawar Zalmi); Faisal Akram, a rare (for Pakistan) left-arm wristspinner (Multan Sultans); the allrounder Arafat Minhas at Karachi Kings; or even the long-awaited return from injury of Naseem Shah, now with Islamabad United.Naseem Shah, Shadab Khan and Azam Khan are among the key players for Islamabad United•PSLThose are the players – which teams should I be looking out for?
One of the endearing attributes of the PSL is how even the playing field has always felt. Each of the six franchises has won the league at least once but none have yet established a dynasty proper. As defending champions, Lahore Qalandars have a legitimate shot at it, having made the final three out of the last four seasons and won the last two. Without Rashid though, they’re missing a quality spinner, though those pacers (Shaheen, Haris and Zaman) eh?Multan have been the other powerhouse in recent editions (runners-up the last two seasons) and last season were a single run away from forcing a Super Over in last season’s final. They look good again this season though most intriguing might be the step up for Abdul Rehman as head coach; Pakistan don’t often do right by their local coaches but Rehman has worked his way up assiduously.And the others?
Islamabad are the data divas’ dream and roping in Mike Hesson as coach will do nothing to dispel that. The arrival of Naseem Shah alone would be a game-changing upgrade for a pace attack that last season looked a little lightweight (Fazalhaq Farooqi apart). But the other two Shah brothers Ubaid (among the leading wicket-takers at the just-concluded U19 World Cup) and Hunain as well? Your social media timelines are going to be blowing up with highlights.Quetta will be the most interesting. Once the league’s most consistent side, they’ve swiftly become its least successful over the last four seasons. But this feels like a season of change. Shane Watson is in as head coach, Shaun Tait as the bowling coach, Sarfaraz Ahmed is out as captain, PSL legend Rilee Roussow is in, Mohammad Amir’s smarts will be more than handy and Abrar Ahmed should be a focal point in the bowling attack. Suddenly, they’re feeling a lot fresher than they have for years.Karachi and Peshawar are not bringing up the rear exactly, but they do feel somewhat less shiny than the others. Karachi have new leadership in Phil Simmons and Shan Masood; Peshawar have Shamar Joseph. But Peshawar’s attack apart from Joseph feels light and Karachi look like they’ve erred too far on the side of experience.My mouth, it is watering. Hit me with the who, what, when and where.
Kicks off Saturday with Lahore taking on Islamabad, 34 matches over the next 30 days, across four venues in Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi and Karachi.

The Essex seamer on hat-trick balls, the Kookaburra and managing his England “obsession”

Vithushan Ehantharajah10-Apr-2024Essex’s 254-run victory against Nottinghamshire in their Division One opener to the 2024 County Championship was the third time Sam Cook has pocketed a ball from both innings of a match in 75 first-class appearances. This time, however, he felt a little guilty.”Do you keep a hat-trick ball?” Cook asks, having achieved the feat in the first innings at Trent Bridge. “It’s not the same as a five-for. I’m sure someone will tell me if it’s the done thing or not.”Critch [Matt Critchley] grabbed the hat-trick ball, and I wasn’t sure what the etiquette was; whether to hang on to it. It didn’t quite sit right with me. But I do have both of them.”The hat-trick on day two – dismissing Lyndon James, Brett Hutton and Dillon Pennington in the first over of the second new ball to give him figures of 4 for 59 overall – was followed by 6 for 14 in the Notts second innings. It was Cook’s 13th five-wicket haul and the fourth time he has taken 10 or more in a match. Two of those (Kent in 2019 and Northamptonshire in 2021) featured five-fors in both innings.Related

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The novelty of the two balls added to the collection – curated by his mum in a box she keeps in his childhood bedroom – is that they are both Kookaburras. The ECB’s experiment with the Australian ball, starting with the first two rounds of the season before returning later this summer, was a means to identify seamers capable of thriving without relying upon the lavish movement of the Dukes. A quarter of the way into this year’s experiment, Cook has already set himself apart from the rest.”I think the brand-new Kookaburra can sometimes give you more assistance from the seam,” Cook says. “Obviously not for a particularly long period normally, but I found it pretty quickly and managed to maintain that for the whole second innings which was really pleasing.”It feels different in the hand. The seam is completely different – it’s a slightly wider seam. But the most obvious characteristic is it goes softer a lot quicker. I know the Dukes in the last couple of years have tended to go soft, but you still with the Duke expect to get 20 overs out of it in relatively in good shape, depending on conditions. With the Kookaburra I’d say you’re lucky to get 10 overs out of it behaving like a new ball as such.”The thing I’ve noticed with the Kookaburra is you’ve got to be a lot more specific with your seam presentation; it’s got to be a lot more upright. You can’t always get away with bowling big wobble seamers, which you can at times with the Dukes. Seam presentation has got to be pretty spot on to get something out of it.”Cook admits he was shaking off some early season rust in the first innings, but made amends in the second. At one point, he had figures of 5 for 9, with three batters (Haseeb Hameed, Matthew Montgomery and Hutton) bowled, along with Ben Slater caught behind and Calvin Harrison trapped lbw. Dillon Pennington’s edge to first slip was number six.

“I’ve looked at the guys who are similar to my skillset playing international cricket, and I’m operating at the speeds they are. When I’ve played in T20 comps, I know the speed guns tend to be a bit skew-whiff but I’m not bowling at 75mph anymore”

Not that Cook, 26, needed this Dukes-less round to state his case for higher honours. A record of 275 first-class dismissals at 19.48 – 261 for Essex across Division One and the Bob Willis Trophy – and a sub-20 average in each of the last four summers already have Cook on England’s radar.His aptitude with the Kookaburra is informed by the winters with England Lions, along with previous experience in Australian grade cricket. With the blessings of and England selector Luke Wright and recently-departed men’s performance director Mo Bobat, Cook opted against the Lions tour of India at the start of the year for stints in the T10 with Chennai Braves and SA20 with Joburg Super Kings. Nevertheless, breaking into Ben Stokes’ Test side remains his top priority.”I’d still absolutely love to play for England. This winter, I probably appeared to have turned attention more to white-ball [cricket]. But that was more through trying to experience new conditions and playing in South Africa with an eye to playing for England in the future.”What I’ve tried to do, though, my conscious effort since last season, is not become too obssessed with it. I’ve probably become too consumed with the obsession of wanting to play for England and gone away from what I do really well. That’s something I’ve tried to change, more from the fact that I think if I do what I do really well for long enough, that opportunity will come. Just to trust in that and not waver from what’s made me successful in the last few years.”Overriding that is: I’d still love to play for England one day.”Will the call come this summer? Stuart Broad’s retirement, Ollie Robinson’s disappointing India tour, and uncertainty over Josh Tongue’s fitness seemingly present an opportunity for Cook with three Tests each against West Indies and Sri Lanka to come. Though skilful, like Robinson, he is not as tall. And he is not as quick as Tongue, primarily operating in the low eighties. Though he is working to raise his speeds, he acknowledges there is only so much he can do without compromising what has made him so successful.Eyes on the prize: Sam Cook hopes to make his case for a Test cap•Getty Images”I think if anyone had the answer to that question I’d pay them a lot of money,” Cook replies when asked how he would go about adding speed. “I know there’s never going to be an increase of 10mph in my own pace.”But it’s trying to get the most out of what I can physically do, whether it’s been more focus in the gym on power and explosive exercises rather than bulk, heavy weights. It’s moving weights as quick as I can, focus on sprinting, that kind of stuff. I’m trying to maximise the pace side.”Rhythm is a big thing for me. My fastest spells have always been when I’ve been the most controlled, the most in rhythm and everything clicks from there.”I’ve looked at the guys who are similar to my skillset playing international cricket, and I’m operating at the speeds they are. When I’ve played in T20 comps, I know the speed guns tend to be a bit skew-whiff in some of those, but I’m not bowling at 75mph anymore.”For what it is worth, those who have faced Cook recently have noticed a few extra yards. Clips of cartwheeling stumps on social media certainly won’t harm his case. Nor will building on a strong start to the summer.

Sam Cook is a star: A hat-trick in the first innings, 6/14 in the second

Watch all six second-innings wickets – Essex's best County Championship figures since September 2022! pic.twitter.com/WXMlTv0Ita

— Vitality County Championship (@CountyChamp) April 8, 2024