 Ireland will take on Netherlands in the 37th game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The game is a Group B match and will be played at the Eden Gardens
in Kolkata.
The match will have no bearing on the way the quarter-finals will pan out.
Ireland have only one win from their five games while Netherlands
have won nothing yet. This means that irrespective of which side wins this game,
it will not make any difference to the points table or to the top four rankings.
Click for Live Score Card of Ireland Vs Netherlands
Ireland have had a decent tournament so far but it is their finishing which has
been an issue. They found it difficult to chase down a total of 200 against Bangladesh,
came close to beating West Indies but fell at the last hurdle while bowling well
against India and South Africa. In the interim they also beat South Africa due
to that one innings that Kevin O'Brien played in the tournament and will now hope
that he will repeat the magic.
Where Ireland have been definitely good has been the way they have fielded. The
bowling attack is understandably mediocre but the ground fielding has been so
good that the bowling figures have looked much better than they should have.
This has allowed the side to prevent the opposition from getting away till the
very last overs when the hard hitting batsmen have taken the attack over the fielders'
heads.
On the other hand, Netherlands promised much in their first game of the tournament
but fell away after that. After scoring almost 300 against England, they have
had a poor set of four games including a 161 all out against Bangladesh and that
has left them without a win.
Against Ireland, the advantage that the Dutch batting will have is that the bowling
isn't as strong as the other oppositions. This will mean that the side will have
a chance to go after the bowling once set but that will also mean that the Irish
will have a chance to pick up wickets at regular intervals.
Netherlands need their middle-order to fire. In Ryan ten Doeschate, they do
have a batsman who can do a job of batting through and getting a big one, like
how he had against England. however, the issue is that the side depends too
heavily on ten Doeschate; the others like Wesley Barresi and Alexei Kervezee need to get going too.
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