Hosts England will face Netherlands in the first game of the ICC World T20 2009 on the 5th of June in a Group B encounter.
The Netherlands had only played four Twenty20 internationals before arriving in England but after some shaky performances, they seem to have discovered their best XI with Eric Szwarczynski likely to drop out, having lost his opening batting slot to Alexei Kervezee and one of Tom de Grooth or Peter Borren taking the final middle order slot.
The twelve who England put out against West Indies on Wednesday suggested that Graham Napier, Rob Key and Owais Shah will be the men to miss out here. Given the flat nature of the Lord's pitch and the fact that spinners do well in this form of the game, they may be tempted to play both Adil Rashid and Graeme Swann which means that one of the seamers will miss out, possibly James Anderson, given Stuart Broad's greater facility with the bat.
While England will go into the game as overwhelming favourites, they will do well to remember that the Scotts had given them a run for their money in the first warm-up game. Chasing a mediocre total, England had needed 19 of the 20 overs to get there, and at one stage, things had started looking interesting for the underdogs. It is often said about cricket that when you think that you have had it by the scuff of its neck, it bites you in the bum, and there is no other format like T20 that underlines this saying more! England will need to be wary of being complacent against their lesser opponents.
This is not to say that England doesn’t have the personnel to crush any such surprising resurgence. Ravi Bopara smashed a half century against the West Indies in the warm-up, in turn continuing with the purple patch that he has been in ever since the start of the Indian Premier League. On the other hand, Kevin Pietersen’s surprise admission that he is not a very good T20 player may just be a ploy to keep the pressure off him or a candid expression of the truth. Given his scores in the Indian Premier League as the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, it does look like the latter.
Although there have been four warm-up games at this venue over the last few days, they can't really be taken at face value, given that these matches have been played with varying levels of intensity.
Of more relevance might be the two Twenty20 Cup games played here this season, in which Surrey racked up 186 and Kent managed 191, both teams batting first. Admittedly, the Middlesex bowling was pretty toothless, but nonetheless, with previous Twenty20 Cup scores here exceeding 200 on occasions, we can safely assume this is a good batting track. There doesn't appear to be too much disadvantage batting second here, even in day-night games, other than the pressure that comes with having to chase what is usually a big score.
The Netherlands had only played four Twenty20 internationals before arriving in England but after some shaky performances, they seem to have discovered their best XI with Eric Szwarczynski likely to drop out, having lost his opening batting slot to Alexei Kervezee and one of Tom de Grooth or Peter Borren taking the final middle order slot.The twelve who England put out against West Indies on Wednesday suggested that Graham Napier, Rob Key and Owais Shah will be the men to miss out here. Given the flat nature of the Lord's pitch and the fact that spinners do well in this form of the game, they may be tempted to play both Adil Rashid and Graeme Swann which means that one of the seamers will miss out, possibly James Anderson, given Stuart Broad's greater facility with the bat.
While England will go into the game as overwhelming favourites, they will do well to remember that the Scotts had given them a run for their money in the first warm-up game. Chasing a mediocre total, England had needed 19 of the 20 overs to get there, and at one stage, things had started looking interesting for the underdogs. It is often said about cricket that when you think that you have had it by the scuff of its neck, it bites you in the bum, and there is no other format like T20 that underlines this saying more! England will need to be wary of being complacent against their lesser opponents.
This is not to say that England doesn’t have the personnel to crush any such surprising resurgence. Ravi Bopara smashed a half century against the West Indies in the warm-up, in turn continuing with the purple patch that he has been in ever since the start of the Indian Premier League. On the other hand, Kevin Pietersen’s surprise admission that he is not a very good T20 player may just be a ploy to keep the pressure off him or a candid expression of the truth. Given his scores in the Indian Premier League as the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, it does look like the latter.
Although there have been four warm-up games at this venue over the last few days, they can't really be taken at face value, given that these matches have been played with varying levels of intensity.
Of more relevance might be the two Twenty20 Cup games played here this season, in which Surrey racked up 186 and Kent managed 191, both teams batting first. Admittedly, the Middlesex bowling was pretty toothless, but nonetheless, with previous Twenty20 Cup scores here exceeding 200 on occasions, we can safely assume this is a good batting track. There doesn't appear to be too much disadvantage batting second here, even in day-night games, other than the pressure that comes with having to chase what is usually a big score.
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