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Four years ago in Bangladesh, Nepal and the Netherlands arrived at the global T20, apparently walking on divergent paths.
Nepal participated for the first time in a major ICC championship, marking their status as an associate team. The Netherlands, meanwhile, have seen their team decline, their series of three World Cup matches having been eliminated before the Super Six of the World Cup qualifiers in New Zealand, resulting in an overwhelming loss ODI status.
"We were not sure what was ahead of us," Dutch captain Pieter Seelaar told ESPNcricinfo. "We were a little in the dark, not knowing if we were going to play representative cricket."
Nepal has won two victories in three first-round games, eliminating Hong Kong, its rival associated with Asians. Afghanistan while giving Bangladesh a decent training. The Netherlands also scored two victories in the first round, and how. Needing to follow a target of 190 in 14.2 if they wanted to overtake Ireland and Zimbabwe on the net success rate for a spot in the main draw, a dreamlike Dutch match followed while they secured the target with three bullets to spare.
In different ways, the results showed that the future still had a lot to offer the two countries, despite the obstacles that awaited them. Nepal has had administrative difficulties that left it under the suspension of the ICC. For the Netherlands, he was competing to reach and possibly overtake other Associates who had access to more funding under the ODI status.
The fruits of four years of hard work since World T20 in 2014 will be presented at the VRA Terrain in Amstelveen on Wednesday at the start of a two-game ODI series. It's a holiday for both the Netherlands hosts, who will play their first ODI in over four years, as well as for Nepal, which will play its very first ODI.
Each team went out of their way to have the opportunity to play ODI against each other. The Netherlands did so by discipline and regularity, losing only two and a half to two and a half years to win the World Cricket League Championship, which ended in a match against Namibia at Dubai last December.
Nepal l & # 39; did by courage and resilience. After being relegated from the WCL Championship in December, they responded with a series of WCL Division 2 victories in Namibia. Then, having started with three consecutive World Cup defeats, Nepal beat once more in two games to win to survive in Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea, removing them from the status of the World Cup. 39; ODI. All this was done while their governing body, the Cricket Association of Nepal, was suspended by the ICC.
And so is Nepal and the Netherlands playing what is ranked by status as their highest level of associated cricket. Yet paradoxically, Wednesday's historic meeting is accompanied by much less pressure – as a bilateral series – than anything that has been experienced in recent years in the sphere of promotion and relegation of the World Cricket League
. status, you are at least safe for four years, "said Nepal captain Paras Khadka, about the freedom his team now enjoys." We know through the World Cricket League system, every game that you had to go to and win. One bad day we as players thought, was it the end of our career? Yes? ? No & # 39; I mean we've gone through all the ups and downs and we're here today playing our first ODI, obviously it's special for us
"If the results do not work in your favor, you can go back to the drawing board and work things out and come back stronger.The pressure is not as strong in terms of relegation and promotion, but as for our first ODI, we would like start with a few wins, that would be fantastic, it's a historic opportunity for sure. "
But even locals acknowledge that this game is attracting more and more attention from visitors: from 500 to 1000 fans should arrive tomorrow, mostly Nepali. According to sources, in Nepal, 4.5 million NPRs were paid (approximately USD 40,000) to simultaneously broadcast a video stream produced by KNCB on TVs in Nepalese households, which means that the KNCB hopes to at least reach the threshold profitability, or even pocket a little. The Netherlands are entering the two-game series as favorites and as the best team because of their status as the 13th ODI League team that is scheduled to start 2020. However, Nepal does not have the same goal. do not hesitate to remind observers that they have left the Netherlands one of their only two defeats in the WCL Championship cycle from 2015 to 2017.
"The last 50-over game we played here, we beat them," said Khadka. He should know better than most having scored the best with 84 in 1945 in Nepal, which was defended by 19 points. "Crazy memories, but that's part of the story: coming to the Netherlands, we've always loved that, it's good playing conditions."
At least eleven players will make their ODI debut tomorrow, perhaps up to 18 according to who composes the Netherlands from XI. For Seelaar, he highlights the bittersweet nature of a number of stars who have made important contributions from 2014 to 2018 to help the Netherlands get their ODI status but will not necessarily reap the rewards , especially Borren but also Ahsan Malik, Mudassar Bukhari and Michael Swart
"I played a lot of cricket with these guys and I think lately you tend to forget the guys who also contributed a lot to during these four years, "said Seelaar. "I guess it's the nature of doing sports at the highest level that people will fall and that new people will come in. It's just the way the sport works.
" C & # It's a shame that these guys are very good players. a lot for Dutch cricket are not able to get these rewards. But in the end, this creates new opportunities for new players who are working hard and are about to leave their own legacy and hope we will make these guys proud by making good contributions to Dutch cricket in the years to come up. "
However, Seelaar says that he does not care at all about the pump and the circumstances that may occur with various new cape pre-match ceremonies. When asked what is it? He expects the most tomorrow, the Dutch captain was very simple.The game of cricket, "said Seelaar, pointing out the targeted preparation of his team on the eve of the first game." What he's doing of an ODI or not, this should not be of much importance.It is one of the A list game or a friendly match, this should not be a problem because we are here to win every cricket game we play.
"I think we are in a very good frame We start working our new style of play rather than what we have played in recent years, people are starting to feel it a bit more and we have not played a lot of 50-cricket In as a team lately, because we focused on the T20 for next year's qualifiers, it should be nice to play Cricket 50 again with the boys and what I'm waiting for the most, it's to win our first ODI. ]
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