Netherlands captain Scott Edwards is hopeful that Virat Kohli doesn’t replicate his previous match heroics against them at the SCG on Thursday. Kohli batted in beast mode as he scored an unbeaten knock of 82 runs off just 53 balls against Pakistan on Sunday at the MCG.
India was struggling at 31-4 however Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya was able to turn the tables. The duo added 113 runs off 78 balls to get their team back into the contest.
Kohli went on to score 71 runs off the last 33 balls he faced as he batted in the topmost gear. Meanwhile, the Netherlands will have its work cut out in order to put the brakes on in-form Virat Kohli, who is going all guns blazing.
Edwards admitted that it will be a surreal feeling to take on India at the SCG in the T20 World Cup.
“It’s huge,” Edwards said on Wednesday. “You always dream of playing World Cups, and the SCG is one of the most famous grounds in the world. And then add in you’re playing against arguably one of the best teams in the world, yes, it’s pretty surreal.”
Edwards went on to add there is no pressure as nobody is putting their money on them to stun India.
“Not many people expect us to win, so not too much pressure on us,” said Edwards. “Our brand of cricket means perform to the best of our ability. Just bring our A game. If it’s enough it’s enough. If it’s not it’s not,” he added.
“What Virat (Kohli) did the other day was surreal. Hope he doesn’t repeat it against us,” he said.
Meanwhile, ICC has discontinued the ODI Super League from the next cycle, which will take away the opportunity from the Netherlands to consistently play against the top teams in the world.
“[It’s] obviously disappointing that the ODI Super League is not going ahead,” Edwards said. “It was a great experience for all of our players. Going forward there are more teams going to the World Cups in the future, which is great, but you’ve got to qualify for those events, which is always tough.”
“It’s a bit disappointing, but we’re here now and we get to play another four, five, however many games in the World Cup which we’re looking forward to. Coming up against these guys, it’s a little bit of an unknown if you only play the bigger nations once every few years. The fact that we got to play 12 to 15 games in the last nine months gives us a lot of confidence. Even for individuals, you look at guys that have performed against these teams. It gives you that sort of acknowledgment that you can perform on a big stage against these bigger teams. We take a lot of confidence from that,” he added.
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