What an exciting game. How many times do you ever get to see a keeper give away a no-ball on a three-metre stumping? Forget India Australia, the World Cup started today. There were also wickets for Santner, lots of them. Ackermann made runs. The Dutch fought hard through Sott Edwards' homework and New Zealand even picked four frontline bowlers. You can’t get better than that.
Can Rachin score the most runs in this tournament? (SAK)
Rachin Ravindra almost has this Zen-like aura when he bats in the top order. He made the world stand up and take notice of his World Cup debut, which was also the tournament opener. With Williamson expected to be back from the next game onwards, he will probably be slotted to open the innings. It is still too early to say if he can finish with the most runs.
However, in these two games and the warmup fixture against Pakistan, he has shown that he is on the right track and is much better suited to bat in the top order. The best teams will definitely plan against him, so it would be interesting to see how he tackles those challenges.
How good is Conway vs spin? (SAK)
Devon Conway has a really strong case for being one of the top all-format batters in the world in the last couple of years. An important reason for his success is that he plays spin really well. And it is not just by fluke, you can see that he has put in the effort since the start of his international career. He also said that just relying on defending against spin may not be the smartest idea, since you might get a grubber anytime.
You can see that the only format where he doesn’t average very high against the tweakers is Test cricket. However, he was very good in Pakistan, the only time he has played in Asia. He hasn’t yet played Tests in India, which would be a proper test of his actual skill in red-ball cricket. He is a quality accumulator and strike rotator with the white ball, which makes him a top-quality anchor batter for CSK in the IPL and NZ in ODIs.
Mitch Santner’s pace (JK)
I thought that maybe New Zealand were trying to Bazball ODI cricket last game when they chose only three bowlers. Although I suppose Bazball is from New Zealand’s old ODI play, so maybe re-bazballing. I’m trapped in a Brendon McCullum vortex here. But they will be happy that Ravindra did so well.
I don’t think Santner bowled at his best today. He looked frustrated, even when he picked up wickets. The Netherlands gave him plenty of opportunities as well, at one stage he almost had Roelef out on three consecutive balls. The SLA brotherhood really acting strong there.
But it was an interesting performance from him, because he has struggled for wickets, took heaps, but actually went for runs today. He pulled back the economy at the end against the tail, so it’s a win, but an expensive one.
He really mixed his pace up well. He has a 20 speed spread, which is actually really hard for a spinner to do. Because you still have to do some revs, and get through your action, and there are no slower balls for spinners that do that. So that is why most spinners can’t do this.
When Edwards started to hammer him, he knew he would keep coming, so he slowed it down. That is a good trick against people who sweep, but he also put it wide, meaning Edwards would have to reach for it. Just really good cricket.
Aryan Dutt at the top again (SAK)
The Netherlands bowled 3 maiden overs to begin the proceedings, two of which were bowled by the 20-year-old Indian-origin off-spinner, Aryan Dutt. He seemed to have carried on from where he left against Pakistan in the previous game. However, Will Young and Devon Conway broke the shackles against him, and the rest of the Netherlands attack in the first 10 overs.
He even came back to bowl at the death and got the wickets of Tom Latham and Mark Chapman. The fact that he is willing to bowl the difficult overs as a young spinner is a very promising aspect of his future.
Seam options in the Netherlands (SAK)
Fred Klaasen was by far the best fast bowler for the Netherlands in this World Cup cycle. The left arm pacer was ruled out of this World Cup because of a stress fracture. They fielded a pace attack of Klein, van Meekeren, and de Leede along with the part-time medium pace of Vikramjit Singh. Logan van Beek was unavailable today. Vivian Kingma played a part in the World Cup qualifiers but was unlucky to miss out on the main event.
They don’t have Brandon Glover in the squad either, but he’s a far better T20 bowler than ODIs. He was signed by Durham, which meant that he did not take part in the World Cup qualifiers either. He has struggled with form, and they seem to have lost belief in him, but he has pace and is talented.
Vikram Singh and the straight ball (JK)
Vikram Singh is one of the many young Dutch players who can transform their cricket forever, and when he plays a good shot, like the one he played against Shaheen in the first match. In fact, with room, he’s a very good player. But he’s still a work in progress.
He has three issues, I think he picks the wrong short balls to go after and he doesn’t have enough boundary options against spin. These are things he can work on. The one I am most concerned about is the balls on the stumps, no matter the length he struggles. But from watching him, he has a lot of issues with full straight deliveries.
It’s not terminal (Jonny Bairstow's career says hi). But technically this is a deficiency he has to at least mitigate. Teams will know you can’t give him room anymore, and you can be dismissed at this kind of rate.
Colin Ackermann can bat (JK)
The Dutch were very excited to get Colin Ackermann into their team for 2019, and it makes sense. He is a legit player with 10,000 first-class runs, and with Ryan ten Doeschate moving on and Roelof going down the order he was the ideal player to come in and help rebuild their middle.
So every major tournament they parachute him in as a class upgrade. But he hasn’t quite cashed in. The problem is that he hasn’t quite been at his best for them. His record from nine ODIs has been fine. But has really struggled in T20s. And mostly the issue is that he almost always gets a start, but never goes on. He has 26 professional hundreds, but too often for the Dutch he gets in, does well, and then goes out. Sadly he did that again today. It was a quality innings, but they needed a hundred, and once he was out the chance of a big chase was pretty low.
Where will Kane slot in? (BQ)
Devon Conway is the top run scorer of this World Cup thus far, with 184 runs. Rachin Ravindra is 10 runs behind him, having scored heavily at first drop, with scores of 123* and 51.
To top it off, Will Young, who had been pencilled in as New Zealand's first-string opener ahead of the struggling Finn Allen, has followed up his duck vs England with a score of 70 against the Netherlands.
That leaves us with the burning question of where Kane Williamson will slot in when he regains match fitness. A player of Kane's stature walks into most teams, and while an ACL injury makes one wonder if he'll be the same batter, you would still take that chance, particularly when he is also the captain.
Perhaps New Zealand can look into dropping someone like Mark Chapman, to make room for Rachin in the lower order, but then again, who is to say the young Wellington boy with Indian origins will be half as effective there?
They are good problems to have for the Black Caps, but tricky ones nonetheless.
Cricket is in the Olympics for 2028 (JK)
Today, the Guardian have said that for the 2028 Olympics in LA, we will have cricket. For the first time in 128 years since it last appeared. When England won the gold (I think the players got a silver) and France (who got a bronze).
They weren’t high-quality teams, Devon & Somerset Wanderers Cricket Club represented England.
I know what you are thinking, KL Rahul didn’t even make a hundred, what a loser.
But I’m confused, isn’t KL Rahul a player who cannot handle the best bowlers, highest pressure situations, and World Cups make him fall apart like a flower caught in a Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan jet engine?
That is not what happened, is it possible that KL Rahul was always this good?
This game will be very triggering for many cricket fans who believe that the only thing between them and a happy life is the batting of KL Rahul. And I think there are perfectly reasonable reasons why you can be upset with his batting. Early IPL Rahul looked like he would burn down your village, the later version is more likely to drown you in red tape.
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