Holland captain, Roland Lefebvre was full of praise for his team minutes after Holland had lost their Pool A World Cup match against England by six wickets at Buffalo Park on Sunday.
”Holland gave a good performance,” Lefebvre said at a post-match press conference. He was concerned, however, with the soft dismissals of some of
his batsmen, as well as the slow scoring rate. (Holland batted at 2,8 but at times their run rate dipped below two an over).
”That’s why we opened with Luuk van Troost, normally a number six batsman. ”He had to play his natural game,” the Dutch captain said.
Adding to Lefebvre’s worries was that his top five batsmen were dismissed for only 31 runs and it was only thanks to some aggressive and sensible batting by Tim de Leede, who scored 58 not out at number six, that Holland were able to reach 142 for nine wickets in their 50 overs.
”There were positives,” Lefebvre insisted.
”We managed to bat out our 50 overs, which is quite something for us.” Regarding the proposed fixture between Holland and Zimbabwe on February 28, Lefebvre said that Holland had no problem playing in Zimbabwe.
”We have been guaranteed the safety of our team, and safety really was the only issue for us,” the Dutch captain said.
”We are sportsmen, We’ll leave politics to the politicians,” he concluded.
The England captain, Nasser Hussain was highly delighted with his team’s performance.
”To win in only 23 overs was a comprehensive victory, no matter who you’re playing,” he said.
He felt that his opening bowlers, Andy Caddick and James Anderson were most impressive up front, ”although young Anderson got all the wickets.”
With England having to forfeit four points because of their refusal to play Zimbabwe last week Hussain is very aware that England will have to win their remaining four round robin fixtures if they want to reach the Super Six stage of the tournament.
”There’s no coming back from a loss,” he stressed. ”We’ll try and win every game.” – Sapa