Dutch count on coach’s inside knowledge of Bangladesh at World Cup

Eden Gardens (AFP): Dutch skipper Scott Edwards hopes the Netherlands can benefit from coach Ryan Cook’s inside knowledge of Bangladesh to help rescue their fading World Cup dreams.

The two sides meet at Eden Gardens on Saturday with identical records of one win and four losses each. One more defeat will signal the end of any lingering hopes of making the semi-finals.

Cook worked as fielding coach with Bangladesh during the 2019 World Cup and Edwards hopes that could work in the team’s favour.

“It’s definitely a help for us, especially in terms of that sort of analyst side,” said Edwards on Friday.

“He worked for a long time with the Bangladesh team and knows a lot of these guys individually.”

However, he added: “There’s some new players (in the Bangladesh squad), but we’ll take what information we can from him and try to apply that into the game. Execution will be the key.”

Bangladesh and the Netherlands have only met twice before in one-day internationals.

The Dutch won by six wickets in Glasgow in 2010 while Bangladesh came out on top by the same margin at the 2011 World Cup on home ground in Chittagong.

Whatever happens Saturday, Edwards insists that his team’s shock victory over South Africa gave them self-belief.

Now, if they get the opportunities, they want to use that breakthrough for greater consistency.

“When we beat South Africa, our goal was always to come and win four of our first eight games and push for a semi-final spot,” said Edwards of the 38-run win in Dharamsala.

“We had big expectations coming through and obviously winning against South Africa was one step forward and we probably just haven’t hit the mark fully in a lot of the other games we’ve played.”

They suffered a reality check last time out, losing by 309 runs to Australia.

Edwards insists he is not concerned by playing in Kolkata where Bangladesh are guaranteed huge support from the local Bengali-speaking population.

“I think a lot of the boys are actually really looking forward to it,” he said.

“We love playing in front of a big crowd and hopefully tomorrow there are supporters, whether they’re from India or Bangladesh or wherever they come from.”