When Holland beat England in the Twenty20 World Cup

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That was a good finish. You can keep your sixes. You can keep your big name players. You can keep your England-remaining-in-a-major-tournament-for-more-than-five-minutes. Produce a finish like the one in today’s match and cricket’s the best sport in the world.

Nerves, misfields, a yo-yo run rate and a huge upset off the last ball of the match. Great stuff.

Bit shit if you’re England, mind. They played like they were afraid they’d lose and you always, always lose when you do that. Maybe they think the pressure of being the better team got to them, but if that happens, you aren’t the better team. Dealing with things like that is half the point when you get to this level in sport.

Nasser Hussain said Stuart Broad went for the stumps off the last ball because he was ‘a winner’. In that last over, Broad missed three run-outs and dropped a catch. He’s not exactly a keen winner, is he? He’s not embracing victory wholeheartedly.

England had lost the game long before then though. The lumpen batting in the second half of their innings was something Holland steered well clear of in chasing down England’s total.

DON'T BE LIKE GATT!

Mike Gatting wasn't receiving the King Cricket email when he dropped that ludicrously easy chance against India in 1993.

Coincidence?

Why risk it when it's so easy to sign up?

9 comments

  1. Well, I’m Dutch… And drunk… So forgive me for saying:

    Mwhaahhhahahhahgdahhahhahahhahahhaaaababbaa

    I really don’t know what else to say. Winning form England in this way is something like Ajax winning the Champions League.

    And no, no witty remarks. This was just to good.

  2. English cricket has always excelled at getting one part of it;s game right. For ages under Fletcher (post-Banger), no-one at the top of the order could get runs and it was probably that factor that ended up getting dunc the boot. Yet today we seemed to solve that prolem, only for the middle-to-late innings to be more stodgy that pork-belly in gravy.

    It’s almost like England are playing an eleven-man game of Connect 4, so that every time someone gets and advantage it is to the detriment of the others.

    I always knew Connect 4 was shite, now I’ve given myself all the convincing I need. Who’s with me?

  3. Thanks for the species check, Suave. I’d been wondering about that overnight (like you do).

    Capybara meat is said to taste like pork, so the pork belly references are apposite.

  4. There we sat on Friday evening longing to be like the Dutch supporters opposite – watching our best players try their hardest, cheering our team, dreaming of victory and instead as soon as Shah came on and not Key we knew Collingwood had bottled it and we were doomed. (What is the point of playing Key and not giving him a chance is the polite gist of what came from everyone on the top of the Compton stand)

    The English seemed to be wading in treacle; as you say unable to try and win in case they lost. It was completely exhausting watching them, frustrating beyond measure that they couldn’t get off the treadmill and I felt flattened out like a bit of lino by the experience. Oh, it’s hard to be an English supporter.

    I thought i might have to give up cricket but the Scots and the Windies have built me up again.

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