Blah Blah from The TeaBreak Team.

The ICC T20 World Cup may turn out to be another tournament to forget for the cricketing fans in England as the Dutch stun the Englishmen in a thrilling curtainraiser. This match will be remembered for a long time not only for it being one of the greatest upsets but also for it being a nailbiter and ofcourse England at the receiving end besing the host.

What looked like a very strong start to the tournament with 89 runs scored off the first ten overs without a wicket loss turned out to be a rather weak effort during the closing stages of the first inning. One evidence of England not playing up to the mark is having hit no sixes in their innings (whereas the Dutch hit 4 of ‘em!). Despite the sluggish nature of the batting in second half of their innings, England managed a total of 162 which, to be honest, looked quite good against a minnow such as Netherlands.

It has to be said that the Dutch played extraordinary cricket, keeping the pressure from the word go. They never allowed England to have a dot delivery and kept taking on singles and rotating the strike coupled with some flourishing boundaries. The bowling was not as bad as it may sound but the fielding effort was, to say the least, pathetic. Only the last over saw 4 missed run out chances and a dropped catch!!! The rest is just an extension.

England panicked, quite badly. There was no need to. They could have planned to take it into a Super Over, by not allowing the extra run. There was no plan for that apparently. They threw it away with overthrow. While the Dutch, on the other hand, gave it their all! The way they scampered for runs showed their eagerness and will to play and win. They were hungry for it. They had passion, belief and the skill. They were in absolute control throughout the game, always ahead of D/L par score in any event of heavy rain. The only attack of panic came towards the end, but the English looked much more worried, and why not. A World Cup upset at home in the opener! The home team is surely going to get a bashing in the media tomorrow. The only hope for them is a win against Pakistan, who on the other hand must be very cautious playing the Dutch having the experience of losing against Ireland in the World Cup.

This T20 WC has surely opened up and the stage has been set up for a great tournament ahead!