Congrats to the Dutch

Regular readers will recall that I predicted two months ago that England would pick the wrong team and get beaten by Netherlands, and so it has come to pass. Discussion of England’s incompetence can wait until they have been eliminated; today is for lavishing praise upon the Dutch.

Netherlands won because they entered into the spirit of Twenty20 and their opponents did not. Theirs was a performance of committed enterprise, England’s one of nervous inhibition.

Their preparation was no doubt enhanced by the experience of Dirk Nannes, the Australian whose Dutch parentage makes him eligible for the Netherlands’ team but also allowed him to play for Middlesex last year as a non-overseas player. The sight of him opening the bowling from the Nursery End was thus very familiar. Nannes has real pace, but he was also accurate enough to prevent Bopara exploiting it.

The rest of their attack is really rather ordinary, but it has the advantage of not being very quick. The boundaries in use at Lord’s (and at The Oval, from today’s TV coverage) are the same as in Test cricket, so batsmen have to supply all the power if they are to clear the ropes off the Dutch bowling – and though Luke Wright tried, his timing and technique were not really up to it.

The combination of tigerish fielding and bowling that made fast scoring slightly tricky was enough to restrict the target to eight an over – stiff but by no means impossible.

The first couple of overs did not go well, but thereafter they took their lives in their hands and just went for it. They tried to hit everything, and England placed so much reliance on their fast bowlers that miscues went for four; even more importantly, they ran for everything, especially overthrows and ricochets. Such impertinence sent the England fielders into a tailspin of panic, and the errors, dropped catches and wild throws multiplied.

The shot of the day was Tom de Grooth’s six off Broad. Stepping forward to turn the ball into a half-volley, he played the perfect three-iron over long-off. His innings was a gem, as adventurous and stylish as anything we will see from well-known internationals in the major teams. At the age of 30 he probably has higher priorities in life, but a number of counties will have seen enough to consider offering him a contract at least for next season’s Twenty20 competitions.

The English were frightened of making mistakes, made too many, and worried about them. The Dutch expected that they would make mistakes and therefore ignored them. Twenty20 is about being fearless, and it was the bravest team which won. Pakistan, no strangers themselves to losing World Cup matches to minnows, be warned.

The Dutch victory was not the only example of the cricketing gods’ excellent taste, though. Instead of the opening ceremony which the organisers had planned, we were treated to something far more characteristic of English cricket: the ground staff taking the covers off just in time for the rain to restart, not once but three times over. As entertainment, this was almost certainly superior to the scheduled display of the twelve men’s captains standing on six little daises waving inanely to the crowd while Alesha Dixon sang.

A little World Cup involving twelve teams does not need an opening ceremony to kick it off – a thrilling cricket match was all that was needed, and that is what we had.

Gelukwensen aan de Nederlanders!