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29 March 2024

Dutch out to ruin Tigers party, says Borren

Published
By AFP

Winless Netherlands clash with Bangladesh in the World Cup on Monday determined to stop the co-hosts from making the quarter-finals, captain Peter Borren has said.

Bangladesh, who have four points from as many matches, must defeat both the Netherlands on Monday and South Africa in Dhaka on Saturday to cement a place in the quarter-finals.

But a win over the Dutch can also see the Tigers through if England, who have five points, lose their last match to the West Indies in Chennai on Thursday.

"Bangladesh are right in the mix and definitely it will be our intention to ruin the party for them," Borrn said ahead of the day match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium.

"We are positive about it, but we are also very realistic about what will happen. In these conditions Bangladesh are obviously a very tough team to beat."

The Netherlands have played Bangladesh just once, in Glasgow last year in a rain-shortened 30-over game which the Dutch won by six wickets with Borren taking 3-20 and Wesley Barresi making 64.

The non-Test nation has lost four successive matches in this World Cup, all of them to leading teams in Group B.

The Dutch extended England in their opening game, but then lost to the West Indies by 215 runs and were thrashed by South Africa by 231 runs, before bowing to India by five wickets.

Borren said his team was determined to end the tournament by posting wins in their remaining games against Bangladesh and Ireland.

"So far we've had a pretty tough draw, we've come up against four top sides," the captain said.

"We played well against England and I think we competed against India, with two disappointing performances against South Africa and West Indies in between.

"If we can win the last two games, we'd be happy with that."

Borren said his team was slowly getting used to playing on the slow wickets around the Indian sub-continent.

"What we will face tomorrow is going to be the epitome of what we are training for, that is playing spinners on slow wickets," he said.

"I think that is what Bangladesh will throw at us."

Bangladesh will be wary of all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate, who smashed 119 off 110 balls against England earlier in the tournament, and batsman Tom Cooper.

Left-arm spinner Pieter Seelaar picked up three wickets each against the West Indies and India, where his victims were Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Yusuf Pathan.

"It shows we have learned a lot by playing against top teams," said Borren. "The bowling of Seelar has been a positive, he has got a lot of good players out.

"We've had starts from Cooper, hopefully in the next games he can carry on further. Other positives would be the 292 we got against England and the beautiful hundred by ten Doeschate.

"We are looking for a lot more positives in the last two games."