PREVIEW: ICC T20 World Cup 2021
Published at 15 October, 2021The wait is nearly over. On Monday October 18, at 12 noon CET, the Netherlands will start the T20 World Cup, with a game against Ireland. Two more group matches will follow in the days after and when the Netherlands end up top two of the group, we move on to the "Super 12", where the last 12 teams will compete for the world title. Everything you need to know before the World Cup starts, you'll find right here!
Schedule
Monday 18 October - 12:00 - Ireland
Wednesday 20 October - 12:00 - Namibia
Friday 22 October - 16:00 - Sri Lanka
(All times in CET)
You can follow the games live via YUPPTV.
Squad
Pieter Seelaar (c), Colin Ackermann, Philippe Boissevain, Ben Cooper, Bas de Leede, Scott Edwards, Brandon Glover, Fred Klaassen, Stephan Myburgh, Max O’Dowd, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Logan van Beek, Timm van der Gugten, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren
History
Finally, we can get ready for the T20 World Cup to be played from 17 October to 14 November, 2021. Originally, this event was supposed to take place in Australia in 2020. That didn't happen, for obvious reasons. India was then supposed to host the tournament in 2021, but the situation regarding COVID-19 was found to be insufficiently under control.
Oman and the United Arab Emirates are now the hosts of the World Cup, with relatively modest (but very beautiful) stadiums in Oman (3,000 capacity), Dubai (25,000), Abu Dhabi (20,000) and Sharjah (27,000).
Tournament setup
The Netherlands qualified for this prestigious final tournament back in 2019 through the T20 World Cup Qualifier, along with Ireland, Namibia, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Scotland. Oranje will play the group stage with these teams and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, who already qualified.
The top four teams (two per group) advance to the Super 12, for which the top-8 of the Full Members automatically qualified: Afghanistan, Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and defending champions West Indies.
The Netherlands will play their first group match against Ireland on Monday 18 October. After that, the Netherlands will play Namibia (on October 20) and Sri Lanka (on October 22). This last match will take place in Sharjah, the other two in Abu Dhabi.
If the Netherlands qualify for the Super-12, it will result in a series of great matches against the absolute best teams in the world. But the competition is fierce; Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are among the favourites for the entire tournament, but Ireland and Scotland will also make their presence known, as usual.
The Netherlands in the T20 World Cup
Best Result: "Super 10" (2014)
“The Dutch were in sensational form during the 2014 edition of the tournament in Bangladesh, reaching the Super 10 stage. Slotted in Group B of the first round along with Zimbabwe, Ireland and the UAE, Netherlands won two matches to book a place in the second phase of the tournament.
Pitted in a tough Group 1 consisting of Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand and England, the Dutch performed admirably well, finishing with two points on the board. Those two points came via a famous victory against England in Chittagong, where they bowled out Stuart Broad's men for 88 in defence of a target of 134." (source: ICC)
About the first match - Ireland v Netherlands
“The two nations have cultivated quite a rivalry over the years, having played in various contests against each other in both the 20-over and 50-over formats.
The two sides have faced off 12 times in T20 internationals, with the Dutch holding the edge with seven victories to four. They will hope to extend upon this lead in their opening fixture against the Irish on October 18 in Abu Dhabi, as a victory will be vital for either side to reach the next stage." (source: ICC)
Interview Ryan Campbell: "Faith in us making the Super-12, if we play at our best"
First of all of course I would be keen to know how you see this opportunity and how you and the team experienced the qualifier back in 2019.
The qualifiers were a nail-biting affair that was for sure. Coming into the tournament we had a range of injuries that threatened to derail us and the results were definitely not coming our way. In saying that though, we never panicked and we stayed true to our beliefs of how we wanted to play and that we were a team that could get on a roll. We did that and ended up winning 8 from 9 matches including the final.
Secondly, obviously the Dutch team are facing some tough opposition, how do you rate Ireland, Namibia and Sri Lanka?
Yeah it is definitely the group of death but in saying that, every World Cup match is meant to be tough. There will not be any easy games that is for sure and each of the other 3 teams bring match winners into the mix. We will need to be at our absolute best to proceed.
How do you rate your chances of making it through to the Super 12?
We are confident that we can proceed to the Super 12s but like I mentioned, we need to be at our absolute best if we are to win through. The squad has a great depth of talent as well as being very adaptable.
And finally, re the warm-up match v Scotland: what is your explanation for 7 players being bowled?
Against Scotland we played on an extremely tough surface and our batters didn’t adjust their games accordingly. We did take some positives out of the fixture though with our bowling unit been restricting Scotland to 122.
Our batters played a lot better against Oman and posted 4/165 which I thought was a lot more like us. Our bowlers then went about defending it very nicely which will give us a big confidence boost.
