We are a long way from the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup 2021 officially beginning but the opening match of the Wednesday double header in the tournament is effectively do or die for Namibia and the Netherlands when they meet in Abu Dhabi.
Both these teams lost their opening match of the tournament on Monday and in the cutthroat nature of the first round of this competition a second defeat is a disaster so both are playing for their lives in this Group A showdown.
Namibia
You could probably argue that Namibia are in a slightly better place in the section given that they lost their opening match to Sri Lanka who are expected to dominate proceedings, but that won’t count for a lot if they lose this game. I’m not going to be too harsh on the Namibians in that opening match. They don’t come up against the sort of extreme pace or mystery spin that the Sri Lankans send down very often so it is understandable that they struggled against it.
They are certainly going to need to offer more with the bat here to keep their campaign alive from a competitive standpoint though. They are also going to need their senior players to stand up and offer a lot more and it might be that they need to alter their positions in the line up in order for that to happen. One positive for Namibia is although they were well beaten by Sri Lanka, they did have the Asians in trouble early with the ball so if they can get stuck in early here they might open the game up a bit.
Netherlands
The Netherlands were very disappointing in their opening match and while you can’t be too harsh on Namibia, you certainly can be where the Dutch are concerned. With Sri Lanka to come in their final group match they have left themselves with it all to do, not just because they’ll have to beat Sri Lanka to progress, but they might need to win emphatically to level up their net run rate which took a battering in the loss to Ireland. They absolutely have to win here.
If there is a positive for the Dutch from that opening game then it is that they won’t need to look too far to find out where it went wrong. They were very ordinary with the bat and while losing four wickets in four balls isn’t going to happen very often, the fact they let it happen is a concern. This is a Netherlands side that look good when you look at their squad and now they need their batters to act on their reputations. If they do that then this is a very competent Dutch attack with a number of professional cricketers in their ranks.
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Key Men
JJ Smit had an interesting game in the first match, and a frustrating one from a neutral point of view. He was looking decent enough with the bat but ran out of partners way too quickly and only bowled one over despite getting a wicket in it which was strange. Namibia need him involved for a lot longer here.
In pressure matches teams need their best players to step up and be counted. Ryan ten Doeschate retires at the end of this tournament but he remains their best batter and he needs to be the man to take control of the innings and ensure the Dutch post a total they can work with.
Betting
We’re likely to get a competitive but potentially nervy match here given that it is effectively a knockout contest. These two met in the qualifying competition for this event a couple of years ago up the road in Dubai and 140/6 played 96 all out in a Netherlands win and I would be surprised if we see too many more runs than that here, especially after both batting units struggled in the fashion that they did in the opening match.
You’d have to think the Netherlands will show a little bit more in this one than they did against Ireland but there is no guarantee of it when you consider the pressure they are under. Namibia bowled well up front against Sri Lanka so it certainly wouldn’t be the biggest surprise if early wickets go down here. Namibia struggled with out and out pace in that first game and if the Dutch being Paul van Meekeren into their side they can load up with that so their batters aren’t going to have it easy either. I don’t expect batsmen to be swinging with freedom here because of the fear of losing so under 280.5 runs looks the right bet in this one.
Tips
Back Under 280.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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