3 November - Lucknow - Netherlands Coach Ryan Cook post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
The Netherlands pride themselves on their running between the wickets and as you said earlier in our chats, the doubles, the 20 doubles or more than that in a single game. But also, there is this fact that they've been run out nine times in this tournament itself and four of those have come in this game. So, what are your thoughts on that?
[Ryan Cook:]
Yeah, we do pride ourselves on running between the wickets and it's something that we actually practice, probably not much like other teams, but we do put a lot of time and effort into it. And obviously our turning technique and our running between the wickets in terms of the speed and stuff, we do a lot of training on that. So that's something that our game is built on and we do pride ourselves on that.
Obviously today as you can see four runouts and you know not just any run outs that are two, three, four and five in your batting order getting run out not ideal and probably some decision-making inside of that as well.
So yeah, we'll have to go back and have a look at that but it won't stop us, it's part of our DNA of our team and we'll keep trying to run between the wickets and value every run like we do.
[Reporter:]
To add to that, of course the dimensions here at the Ekana Stadium aren't, I mean compared to the other stadiums in India, these are certainly bigger dimensions but the numbers today say Netherlands had seven doubles and Afghanistan actually managed eight.
[Ryan Cook:]
Yeah, well I think in a situation like that it's probably the mentality of the batsmen as well, they're not looking to try and hit the balls in the gap, they're just trying to get better on ball and sort of take the innings a little bit deeper. There was only two games ago against Sri Lanka on this very venue where we got 27 twos. So, you know, it is something that we're going to continue to do and it's a reason why we've been successful to this point. Obviously, we don't like to be outrun by any team and they certainly did make a conscious effort to try to shut down the twos by standing well off the boundaries, which obviously we try to do as well in the field. So, credit to them for the fielding as well. They were some really good pieces of fielding throughout the day.
[Reporter:]
What were your targets for Netherlands in this World Cup? And do you think that you have picked most of them? And what are you looking for in the remaining matches?
[Ryan Cook:]
Yeah, I think it's been pretty blatant. We've come out and said we wanted to make the semifinals. I think all the teams would have wanted to do that at the start of the tournament and I certainly would want to play for a coach and a captain that sort of wants that from the team and believes in the team that they can achieve that.
We've still got two games to go, and we can get ourselves up to four wins. And that's sort of what we'll be talking about in the change room from now on. Semifinals obviously look very distant from here. But I think at the end of the day, we keep striving to be a better team day by day. And we'll obviously be putting in big performances in the next couple of days.
[Reporter:]
Your top order failures, you must have been asked a lot about that. Even today you made a change but that didn't work out. So where does the team go from here?
[Ryan Cook:]
Yeah, as you say, I mean the top order has struggled and we needed to address that problem. We did so with a sort of change in the top order and we were going along really nicely, they actually had 73 for one at one stage so really happy with how the power play went.
This game needs a lot more than just a good power play in order to win it and you know they fought their way back into the game and sort of we gave away a couple of run outs and you know we do pride ourselves on being a team that's tough to beat, but we beat ourselves a little bit with the running between the wickets today and put ourselves a bit behind the game and struggled to catch up after that in the middle overs.
We'll look again at the top order and see what's best in that space and we'll be looking at the combinations for next game.
[Reporter:]
Now on the bowling front, where do you think Afghanistan ran away with the game? They finished it pretty early. So where do you think the chase, you guys had them at 55 for two, but then it went away very quickly.
[Ryan Cook:]
I think like you're seeing in the tournament throughout, if you don't get a good enough score there's not enough scoreboard pressure to hold the game for long enough and batsmen can afford to get themselves in, extend the partnership and with that it makes it more difficult to get them out.
The guys fought hard there, like you said knocking over two wickets early on but then extending a partnership and credit to the way that they played, extremely low risk, hit the balls into gaps and spaces and ran really well between the wickets. So, that was a, you know, fantastic pieces of batting from them to be able to drag that game into that position I think Scott Edwards did try as much as he could to try and keep attacking and try and win the game which I think were you know sort of played into the hands of the scoreboard ticking along as well, but yeah, the batters batted well and put a good partnership together there to see them to the end.
[Reporter:]
Now two matches have left, now you guys are now champions trophy spot or not?
[Ryan Cook:]
Yeah, we obviously found out about the champions trophy Qualifications just the other day we were aiming for you know just obviously in this tournament we weren't playing for what was going to go further. We'll obviously have to look at how that looks now, going into the game against England and India, and that'll be certainly something on the guys' minds in terms of something to play for. But the guys are a very proud team. We're all proud of what we've done here, and we'll obviously be keep pushing for wins, and we owe it to the tournament to continue to do so. So, we'll keep pushing on in the next two games.
[Reporter:]
Do you think that the four-win target was unreal now? When you guys have started, a minimum four wins in the tournament?
[Ryan Cook:]
No, I don't think so. We were ambitious in that space to be able to try and win four games. And I think if you have a look at it, we put ourselves in positions to be able to win at least three games so far. And who knows what happens in the next two.
So, yeah, it was an ambitious target to be able to go for. And we'll obviously keep striving towards trying to get those four wins. That's not over and done by any stretch of the imagination yet.