The Netherlands Tri-Nations T20I competition concludes in The Hague on Friday when the tournament hosts go up against Ireland in the final game of what has been a useful event for all concerned ahead of the World Cup.
We now know that Ireland have won the competition so these two sides have one last encounter before they head off to the Caribbean for the World Cup to fine tune anything they want to ahead of the big event.
Netherlands
We have seen an up and down element to the Netherlands so far in this tournament. They started it in decent fashion with a win over Scotland, although there was a thought process that they might not have been as good as the margin of victory in that match showed. Since then they have lost a close match to Ireland and then been absolutely thrashed by Scotland so you sense they could do with a confidence lift in this final game.
The Dutch batting is starting to be a growing concern for me moving towards the World Cup. I never really had them down as being strong in the T20 format, I think their unit overall would be much better suited to the 50 over format, but you would like to think there is more in them than they have shown else their stay at the World Cup won’t be a long one. On the plus side, their bowling has gone pretty well in the competition so that bodes well.
Ireland
Ireland haven’t impressed as much as I would have expected them to throughout this tournament so far but they have clearly been the better of the three sides on show and I would be surprised if they don’t have the best World Cup campaign as a result, even allowing for them being in a tricky group. I still think there is more to come from them and that is probably a positive as they head to the Caribbean. This is one last chance to get some form into those who need it.
The Ireland batting hasn’t fired like we know that it can in this competition yet but a couple of their big players, who they will rely on for runs when they get to the West Indies, have made contributions which is good. The longer the last couple of weeks have gone on the better the Ireland bowling has gone too, especially at the back end of the innings which was always their weakness. With Josh Little come into the squad as well that certainly bodes well for them.
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Team News
You would imagine that both sides will use this final game to give an outing to those in the respective squads who are in need of form so it might be that someone like Wesley Barresi plays a bigger role for the Netherlands here.
Ireland might look to rotate a lot more players than the home side purely because they played less than 24 hours earlier and will want to ensure they don’t pick up any injuries ahead of the World Cup. Ross Adair, Neil Rock and Fionn Hand will all be looking for another run out.
Betting
I think it is worth backing the home side here. The Netherlands were naturally going to be more motivated to win this one because they are playing a rare international series on home soil and I think they will have more of their strongest XI on show in this match than Ireland might well have. The likes of Andy Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker have scored runs in the series so they might be rested and that will leave plenty of inexperience in this Ireland side.
The Netherlands have shown enough with the ball in this series that even if Ireland do have anything like a full side out, and I really don’t see the point in them doing so, that they will get the job done against them so if they can find some form with the bat, and you would imagine Ireland will rest bowlers as it is a tough ask to play twice in two days, then there is enough in this Dutch side to win here. They only lost by a run when the two sides met the first time around and with a few more margins potentially in the Netherlands’ favour they feel a big price here.
Tips
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