Netherlands head coach Ryan Cook pointed to a self-destructive streak of runouts – the Dutch side lost four of its top-order batters in that fashion — as a major reason for his side’s seven-wicket defeat against Afghanistan in the World Cup in Lucknow on Friday.
“We do pride ourselves on running between the wickets and it’s something that we actually practice, probably not much like other teams, but we do put a lot of time and effort into it. Obviously, today as you can see, four run-outs and you know, not just any run-outs; that are two, three, four and five in your batting order getting run out is not ideal.
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“We’ll have to go back and have a look at that but it won’t stop us, it’s part of our DNA of our team and we’ll keep trying to run between the wickets and value every run like we do,” said Cook.
With a semifinal spot well beyond his side’s grasp after the defeat, Cook said that they will re-evaluate their targets in the tournament.
“We obviously found out about the Champions Trophy qualifications just the other day. We’ll obviously have to look at how that looks now, going into the game against England and India, and that’ll be certainly something on the guys’ minds in terms of something to play for.
“But the guys are a very proud team. We’re all proud of what we’ve done here, and we’ll obviously keep pushing for wins, and we owe it to the tournament to continue to do so. So, we’ll keep pushing on in the next two games,” added Cook.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, is a side flying high on confidence, having won its last three matches. But it didn’t enjoy the best of starts to the tournament, losing the first two matches, against Bangladesh and India, respectively.
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott pointed to his side’s match against India as a turning point in his side’s World Cup campaign.
“I think we saw a bit of form coming into the side against India. Obviously, we lost the game but then that gave us a bit of confidence. There are certain things we need to get better [at]. We need to improve on it for the next game against Australia in Mumbai,” Trott said.
Afghanistan, which is fifth on the points table, will take on South Africa in its last league-stage match, after facing Australia. The prospect of facing two of the best batting units of this World Cup doesn’t worry Trott too much.
“You’ve got to definitely prepare and have a look at how the opposition is going to play. But the thing is, we just focus on how we play and what makes us the side that we are. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t look at the opposition too much and forget about what we’ve got to do well,” the coach said.
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