New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) Netherlands opener Max O’Dowd said he has moved on from the catch he dropped of Faheem Ashraf that proved to be costly in his side’s narrow three-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the Men’s T20 World Cup opener, adding that Indian fans were more upset about the miss than the Dutch public.
At the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo, O’Dowd put down Pakistan’s seam-bowling all-rounder Ashraf in the penultimate over of the match. It proved to be very costly as Ashraf went on to hit an unbeaten 29 off 11 balls to seal victory for the 2009 champions.
Soon after, comments section on social media accounts of O’Dowd were swarmed by Indian fans making distasteful remarks. “Well, I mean, it’s obviously disappointing to drop a catch. Just the first couple of hours after the game, I was disappointed as you would be. But to be honest, I think most Indian people were more angry than the Dutch public. “
“I understand they want Pakistan to lose and my dropped catch obviously didn’t help. But like I said, catches are a part of the game. They get caught, and get dropped and I’ve trained taking that catch a thousand times and I just happened to drop it that time. So, hopefully, the next time I do catch it,” O’Dowd told IANS in an exclusive conversation on the eve of their Group A clash against Namibia, to be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
The Netherlands now return to a venue where several squad members played during the 2023 ODI World Cup. “A big clash. Obviously, a chance for us to get back to our best. I think after a disappointing result in the end against Pakistan, it’ll be nice to get a win here into Delhi. Obviously, we were here in 2023 (during ODI World Cup). So, guys are quite familiar with the ground, which is high scoring. So, an exciting opportunity tomorrow,” said O’Dowd.
The Dutch posted 147 against Pakistan but suffered an almighty meltdown from 105/4, after being promising to post 160-ish. With Pakistan’s spinners tightening the screws, Netherlands lost their last seven wickets for 42 runs.
“We spoke about it as a batting group. I mean, we had a good start, obviously, and actually set ourselves up really nicely through the middle and then just probably took some wrong options at the wrong time and just lost wickets in clumps. I think that slowed down the progress,” said O’Dowd.
Despite the batting collapse, the opener praised his team’s bowling performance in defending the total, with the Netherlands reducing Pakistan from 98/2 to 114/7 before Ashraf’s late heroics came into the picture.
“But then, to be honest, that’s probably the best I’ve seen us bowl through the middle period. If you ask any fan at the halfway stage, you’d say that game’s done. I don’t think many teams in the world are clawing back from that position in the way we did.
“Obviously, disappointing the way it ended. But we’ve had our discussions. We’ve moved on. It’s obviously a different service here in Delhi. So, we’re looking forward to that,” he added.
With Group A also having USA and defending champions India, O’Dowd stated about the importance of securing a victory against Namibia to get their campaign back on track. “It’s going to be extremely important. We’ve seen loads of close calls already so far this tournament.
“Obviously, Pakistan still have to play Namibia, USA and India and then for ourselves, we’ve got big games coming up and then obviously finishing against India in Ahmedabad, which is going to be extremely tough. But we’ve got two games to come here against Namibia, then USA and hopefully set us up for a big one at the end,” he said.
Asked about associate nations like themselves, USA and Nepal pushing higher-ranked teams close in the tournament’s opening matches, O’Dowd signed off by saying the performances came as no surprise to those closely following global cricket.
“Well, to be honest, like for me, it’s not that big of a shock. I’ve seen it for a long time now. I think for the average cricket fan, it doesn’t really pay much attention. They might see it as a shock.
“But for guys who really know what’s going on around the world, they understand that the associates aren’t just there to hang around and play some average cricket. I think in T20 cricket, it could have gone either way and that shows the associates are getting much stronger and they’re bridging that gap.”
–IANS
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