It was indeed the greatest day of Dutch cricket when they outraged host England by 4 wickets in a nailbiting last ball finish.The curtain raiser for the second edition of T-20 world cup thus began with a big-bang. The england fans would hardly forgive Stuart Broad for his missed run out oppurtunity in the last ball which actually gifted the match to the Dutch.Thus 6th of jan would indeed become a dark day in the history of english cricket, something like "the Marackaana disaster".
The sporting world was stunned 7 years back when Senegal defeated France in the opener of the world cup. One wouldnt have heard of El hadji diof or Henri Camara untill that day. the same thing has happened where one hardly could remember a dutch player, except Nannes who plays for the Delhi DD in the IPL. Stuart board wouldnt have expected anything worse when Yuvaraj singh hit him for six tons, two years back.Ravi bopara(46) and Luke wright (71)anchored the England innings with a century partnership that helped them set a target of 163 which was indeed a pretty decent total. Chasing the total with a required 8.1 runs per over the dutch stareted briskly reachin 50 in 5over and 100 in 11 overs.Thanks to some excuisite batting from Reekers, Tn de grooth and borren.Towards the end RN Doescate and Edgar Shiferli held their nerve to take the Dutch's "Noah's Arc " across the sea.The dutch Burst out in jubiliation to what i suppose is the first in a world cup no less than what would have been after clinching the title.Tn de grooth was the player of the match for his hard fought 49 of 30 balls.
Dutch have made their intentions clear that they have not come here fot the usual "fill the gap" routine.This is all about T-20, you can expect the unexpected, and u can see a high octane action every time. You see the ball dissappearing into the stands , feilders at backward point floatin in the air defyin Newtons laws of gravity, and some times burst of emotions like the one we saw at Lord's.Anyways there's lot of action to come in the next 2 weeks.
