28 October - Kolkata - Netherlands player Bas de Leede post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
You beat SA, now Bangladesh – from here what is your goal, how do you see your journey?
[Bas De Leede:]
Yeah, difficult to think about I think - it depends how other teams do, how big our chances are for the semi-final. But for us the goal is to keep winning as many games as we can. I think there's a couple of games where we haven't played to our best, but then again today we did. And if we can do that again for the next three games, who knows where we will finish.
[Reporter:]
Did you surprise Arnold in his batting performance?
[Bas De Leede:]
Obviously, always a surprise when you bowl a team out for 140. But I think on this pitch it was a tricky pitch. It wasn't easy to score runs. And us having runs on the board, I think it was very clear what we needed to do. With the pacers, it being a little bit up and down, spin staying a bit low, I don't think it was the easiest pitch to bat. So, yeah, a little bit surprised, but it wasn't the easiest track to bat on.
[Reporter:]
Could you describe your middle order, what its strengths are, and how did it do in this game, in your opinion?
[Bas De Leede:]
I think we bat very deep, which is one of the qualities we have as a team. Aryan Dutt coming in at number 10, who can still hit the ball miles. So, it's been one of the qualities of middle order. You know, it's rotating strike against spin. And they've helped us get out of some tricky situations a lot. But it's probably from a top-order point of view disappointing that we haven't gotten ourselves off to a good start yet again. So that's something we're trying to fix, but very proud of our middle order and the way we've played so far.
[Reporter:]
What really stood out for you in the Scott Edwards – Engelbrecht partnership?
[Bas De Leede:]
Just the composure, I guess. Knowing that on a pitch like this we didn't need to score 350 or something like that and you know the way they soaked up the pressure and then ran hard, tried to limit dots put pressure on Bangladesh by doing that was great to see.
[Reporter:]
Two questions really, yesterday Scott had made this point about performance being the most important criteria for the Netherlands, for cricket to grow in the Netherlands, a country that is known for excellence in a lot of sports. So how important was this win to that end? And did you think that the wicket was getting better to bowl on as the evening went on?
[Bas De Leede:]
First question, yes, I think obviously every win we get is going to be big for us and for cricket in the Netherlands. We want to inspire young kids to take up the game. And we also want to try and get the ICC's attention to start looking at us as a potentially bigger nation in the coming years. So definitely every win helps.
I think it started to turn a lot more. I think it was a tough wicket to bet on throughout the day You know 240 plays 150 - The score says it all. But yeah, I definitely think it started turning more and obviously we've got a couple of spin options in our team, so that was an advantage for us
[Reporter:]
Bangladesh are known to be weak against short balls, and you bowled quite a few short balls – was it intentional planning against Bangladesh?
[Bas De Leede:]
Yeah, we look at it per player. We try and analyse the players - for example Shanto is great on the short ball so we try and keep it away from him but to other players we try and use it and take wickets with it.
[Reporter:]
How does the Netherlands celebrate after the win against a full member nation?
[Bas De Leede:]
Nothing too crazy. Some of us will have a beer in the change room. We'll sing a team song and apparently there's a there's a rugby game on tonight. So, I think most of the guys will be watching that but yeah - it's nothing too crazy we try and get together as a group and sort of talk about the game and then move on to the next game.
[Reporter:]
Tell us about the theme song.
[Bas De Leede:]
I think it comes from Australian football. It's to a tune of that and then they've changed most of the lines. But it's a great feeling singing that song and everyone really looks forward to that all the time.
[Reporter:]
How is the experience playing in Eden Gardens?
[Bas De Leede:]
Oh, Eden Gardens. Awesome. I mean, today, obviously, a lot of Bangladeshi fans, which was cool to see, but I can say it's a lot more humid and warm than some of the places we've been now, but it was fantastic. I mean, obviously a ground that I have seen a lot of matches being played at in the IPL it was cool to play in myself now.
