Paul van Meekeren: 'In the future, Netherlands can win four or five World Cup games without it being surprising'
The Netherlands fast bowler on the win over South Africa, his viral three-year-old tweet, and why Roelof van der Merwe compared him to his dog
I'm very happy. This is one upset. I said probably a couple [of upsets] to really change the landscape of the tournament, but yeah, it was a great first step in achieving that on a personal note. From a team point of view, we've really targeted that semi-final. After four games we were a little bit further away from that than we probably would have wanted to be - especially the Pakistan game, where we didn't [make the most of] our opportunities. Sri Lanka was a big opportunity for us, but we just didn't bowl and bat well enough in the first 20 overs in both innings.
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No and yes. No, because especially after the way they played their first two games, they seemed to be firing on all cylinders. And yes, because I believed that their batting line-up, even though it's super-strong and powerful with [Marco] Jansen coming in at seven, there was an opportunity for us if we can take three, four quick wickets early. That's what happened. Jansen had shown that he can bat against England, but we had a clear plan. He is dangerous when he is batting in the last ten overs, and not when there's another 20 or more overs to go.
Should've been playing cricket today ow I'm delivering Uber eats to get through the winter months!! Funny how things change hahaha keep smiling people https://t.co/kwVEIo6We9
— Paul van Meekeren (@paulvanmeekeren) November 15, 2020
No, I wouldn't say so. The Uber Eats stuff was fun and it's what was needed at that time, but it's not that I'm new to international cricket. It would have been nice to have a few more upsets behind my name. But we did it last year too [at the T20 World Cup]. We know what we're capable of.
It was just hitting a hard length, top of the stumps, almost like Test-match lengths. We knew there was enough in the wicket and if we just keep hitting the right spot for long enough, it might do something different. And on that occasion the ball skidded on a bit more, but it was just asking question after question.
The plan was quite simple: with his long arms and legs, you don't just want to pitch it up. Again, I hit the same [hard] length that skidded on nicely. He stayed very much left side of the ball, so the stumps were exposed.
"Most of the guys in the Dutch team have the ambition to play in the IPL and the other big leagues. You just can't afford to bowl a half-okay delivery. Every delivery has to be on the mark, otherwise it just goes the distance. It just shows the quality of cricket you have to play to have a chance of making franchise cricket"
Daryl Mitchell [against New Zealand]. He had started to attack the short boundary. He played a few shots before that, too, which signalled they were really trying to start getting into that end phase and accelerating. And that slower ball just came out perfectly and did him all ends up. That was the most satisfying wicket. And we managed to then pick up Glenn Phillips and [Mark] Chapman… we picked up their finishers quite cheaply. They got away the last few overs, which was disappointing, though.
Just trying to be as consistent as you can for as long as you can. The big challenge tomorrow in Delhi [against Australia] is, the wickets seem to be quite flat. But as long as you put the ball in the right place, there has been some assistance in the wickets. I've been more used to bowling towards the last two overs of the first powerplay and then through the middle and the end. Pretty much every game we've actually been quite lucky that we haven't had to go to death bowling yet. I am sure there's going to be a couple of games where the batters will be on top and we'll need to show our death-bowling skills. At the moment we are sticking to the hard length, stump-to-stump line, top of the stumps, as long as we can until we are forced to change.
I saw it. I sent a screenshot to him and I was like, "Haha, well done." I know his shih-poo, Bella, very well. I was there when they picked Bella from the previous owner, who had the litter. So me and Bella go way back! What he clearly didn't tell you is that Bella is a bit of a Duracell battery and when she's not chilling and sleeping, she's running around like a madman. In a way it was actually a very nice compliment, even though he tried to take the piss out of me a little bit. Me and Bella have spent many nights on the sofa chilling while I was babysitting his kids.
I've been playing cricket with him since 2015 - for the Dutch team and at Somerset for three and a half years. When he is doing anything competitive, not just cricket, he just doesn't like losing. We have had it twice now this World Cup, where we had a man too far out of the [30-yard] circle - it's probably not the best time to have a camera aimed at him because he doesn't like those simple mistakes that could have been avoided.
? It's tough. Most of the guys in the Dutch team have the ambition to play in the IPL and PSL and the other big T20 franchise leagues. You just can't afford to bowl a half-okay delivery. Every delivery has to be on the mark, otherwise it just goes the distance. It just shows the quality of cricket you have to play and the level of cricket you have to play at to have a chance of making franchise cricket, which is the new ecosystem in cricket. That's my main takeaway.
"Every team around the world in any sport strives to be better than the previous teams that represented their country. Looking back at the team I played for ten years ago and now, it is completely day and night, culture-wise and performance-wise"
There will definitely be a bit of a buzz around boys, and hopefully also girls, who see what we are doing as a team and want to be part of that success and hopefully that motivation can spark a generation that will outperform our team like we are outperforming the teams from the past. Every team around the world in any sport strives to be better than the previous teams that represented their country. Looking back at the team I played for ten years ago and now, it is completely day and night, culture-wise and performance-wise. There's no reason why guys in five to ten years' time can't come to a tournament like this World Cup and just win four or five games without being looked at as a surprise.
We have made sure we have both feet on the ground. We keep talking about what we can do better. We are training with the same intensity. We are doing the same recovery stuff we did from day one. It's just about being consistent in whatever you do. If it's bowling, batting, sleeping, eating, stretching - it is all part of putting that performance on the field. We are not thinking, "Okay, now we can eat more junk food because we won a game." No, we still make sure we keep getting the right nutrition in. We still have to make sure we get the amount of hours of sleep in, keep doing the homework.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo