Although all games have been lost this year, they came close to beating Pakistan, and captain Scott Edwards had previously spoken about the importance of the Super League in helping develop depth in Netherlands cricket.
Paul van Meekeren believes his competitiveness on the field and the facilities available will make it the ideal lead-in in the England series rather than playing county teams.
“There is no reason why Test teams can’t come to Holland instead of playing county,” he said after the match against India at the SCG. “We have facilities. I think hopefully this year we showed how good the wickets are in Holland. I think the practice wickets back home were fantastic and we played some competitive games.”
We can be as competitive as playing warm-up games against other counties. Why not come to Holland for ten days before traveling to England?
On the field in Sydney, the result went in the expected manner, with India winning the first T20I between the teams by 56 runs, and just the third international meeting overall, but with the ball the Netherlands forcing them to work hard.
India were 32 for one in the Powerplay – van Meekeren trapped KL Rahul leg before wicket, though replays showed it was missing – and the first six should have had two wickets but Tim Pringle dropped Rohit Sharma. After 10 overs, the score was 67 runs for one wicket and so much because 14 runs were spent in the 10th over.
India scored quick runs as expected with wickets in hand, but they were put on 26 less than South Africa by Bangladesh on the same surface, although van Meekeren had mixed emotions.
“If we were honest to ourselves, we would probably have liked a little less, especially after the first 10 overs. “Of course, we didn’t take the wickets we wanted, which gives them the freedom to play like they did in the back (end).
“Yeah, we’re being ourselves.” I guess you can’t miss by a centimeter… You’re in trouble. Bowling against the best players in the world, even if you miss a little bit, you just go. “I personally did it three times and I am sure some of the other bowlers will feel the same about their bowling.
But I think, first of all, I’m very proud of how we went about it. They being a down [at the halfway stage], it could have been much more. “We could have panicked and lost our heads, but I think all the bowlers were very clear about what they wanted to do.
Sometimes you misunderstand it and you’re in trouble, and sometimes you execute and it’s only a dot ball, no matter how good they are. On the overall experience of playing against India in front of 36,000 spectators, Paul van Meekeren said it will take some time to process.
I said it will be a day I will tell my grandchildren about, and it’s playing against India, but in the end you’re playing against 11 other men, they’re not God or anything. You just make men compete with men and that’s what we tried to do today.”You try to block the noise.” You watch it about 100 times on TV and just being there is very special. I think at this moment I probably didn’t realize it, and it will probably sink in the next 24 hours.