The US got its first taste of victory on Friday against the Netherlands at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Monak Patel’s team has performed brilliantly in the tournament so far, but they could not win their first two matches against India and Pakistan.
However, they scored two points in a 93-run win against the Dutch, helping them break the record for the biggest win by run margin for an Associate team in the T20 World Cup. After the big loss, Dutch head coach Ryan Cook shared his thoughts on the lack of preparation to play under lights.
Netherlands coach Ryan Cook criticizes ICC and Jay Shah
Before their last match, the Netherlands had not played a single day and night since September and had played just three T20 matches under lights between the 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups. Cook did not make any excuses for not practicing after the loss.
“We haven’t had any practice under lights yet, so our practice got rained out and the game got rained out,” Ryan Cook said. [against Bangladesh in Sylhet]. Tomorrow [Thursday] we weren’t allowed to play in the light [Netherlands trained from 2-5pm IST on the eve of the game]. So this is our first chance to play under lights after Bangladesh, [for] Some of our players were not there.”
“So this is obviously brand new for most people. But that’s no excuse for us, we have to go out there and do the business, people have done that before at these events. Just a bad night for us.”
Chasing 197 runs, Netherlands were all out for 103 runs. They are the second team in this T20 World Cup, after Namibia, to publicly discuss their lack of experience playing or training under lights.
Before losing to India, Namibia raised questions on ICC
Earlier, the Namibia captain had raised the issue of not being able to train and play in the light before the match against India and raised questions on the matter to ICC and Jay Shah.
Ryan Cook also focused on his bowling unit after the defeat, “I think as good as this wicket was, 195 was probably the best score there,” Cook said. “We didn’t perform well with the ball at all and that kind of put pressure on the scoreboard. But yes, they will be relieved [USA]They batted really well, bowled some very good spin, and yes, our decision making and execution was not right tonight.
Ryan Cook provides update on Paul van Meekeren’s injury
Ryan Cook finally gave an update on Paul van Meekeren, who has missed his last two matches due to an unspecified injury.
Ryan Cook said, “Yeah, Paul got injured after that first game, we tried to get him back for the second game. Unfortunately he hasn’t been back since. But yeah, obviously we’ll try to get him back to health and hopefully he can come back for the last game.”
Netherlands will face India in their final group game on February 18. USA will face Namibia in the Group A match tomorrow.
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