6 October - Hyderabad - Netherlands player Bas de Leede post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
Why did the Netherlands choose bowling first and why after winning the toss?
[Bas De Leede:]
I'm not too sure, that's The captain and coach, they put a lot of thought into that. I think they had the impression that it was our best chance of winning. And I think we did put ourselves in great positions, but we couldn't hold that pressure for long enough, which was a shame.
[Reporter:]
What went wrong for you, especially when you bowled extremely well?
[Bas De Leede:]
Yeah, I think we started really well and then sort of allowed them to get a partnership together and credit to them they batted well throughout that period and then I think at the end in the death, we probably let them get 20 runs too many maybe and then batting wise you know same again, we put ourselves in a good position and then lost three wickets in quick time which put us on the back foot, and then it was tough to recover from that
[Reporter:]
Which of those four wickets did you particularly enjoy the most?
[Bas De Leede:]
I think the ball to Mohammad Rizwan was nice.
[Reporter:]
Were you happy sort of containing them to 280? And where did you think in the batting that slip up happened? At 124, you were looking in a good position. What was the reason that you believe caused the downfall?
[Bas De Leede:]
If you offered us to bowl Pakistan out for 280 before the game, we would have taken it. So, I think we're happy in that sense but then again If we could have kept them down to 20 less, it would have been even better in the position that we were in. And then batting-wise, 120 for two was obviously a good position for us. And I think it was the wickets that were our downfall. We lost Vikram, then lost Teja, then lost Scott Edwards in quite a quick couple of overs, which put us on the back foot. It's tough to then go on and put up another partnership and try and win the game.
[Reporter:]
Bas, so obviously you did all you could with bat and ball, but how is it facing the likes of Haris Rauf, obviously an unusually quick bowler, if you can talk about that?
[Bas De Leede:]
I enjoyed it. Obviously, he's quick. But I enjoyed the battle, everything has to be a bit quicker. So, it's a good challenge for us. And I think it's good to face a guy like that probably in the first game of the tournament. So, it's obviously different. So hopefully, guys can get used to a pace like that again and use it for the rest of the tournament.
[Reporter:]
When you started the innings, the chase, against the pacers it was pretty much good going but once the spinners came in it felt like, especially Vikram got a little bogged down. You also were not able to get those runs freely. Was it something that you also felt like against spinners that it became a bit tough.
[Bas De Leede:]
Yeah, I think they bowled really well. It wasn't the easiest wicket to face spin on because some did turn. And, you know, we've also put a lot of preparation into facing spin. And I still think we could have won that game with the middle we had. But yeah, it is always tough to face quality spinners.
[Reporter:]
We saw you play one superb shot for six over mid-wicket off Navaz, the left arm spinner. In county cricket, I mean, obviously, you're wired to play fast bowling differently on seaming wickets. Just as a follow-up to the previous question, can you just take us through the kind of work that you had to put into to better your game against spin?
[Bas De Leede:]
Well, before I went to India, I spoke to a couple of people that have experience here and asked them what they think overseas batters needed to do to succeed against spin in India. So, I think from then on, I tried to pick line and length up a bit quicker than I'm probably used to. And just stuff like that. And it's probably also thinking about a game plan before the game, talking to the coaches, that helps a lot.
[Reporter:]
The knock was good, so what are the plans for the next match? Because New Zealand, it's going to be an equally challenging team in terms of bowling. It's more or less like Pakistan side.
[Bas De Leede:]
Yeah. They beat England quite comfortably the other day, which was great to see from a cricketing point of view. I really enjoyed watching that but you know it I think every team in this competition has a quality bowling attack, so I'm sure it probably is a mixture of coming up with a game plan and prepare for that. Obviously, you've got Henry at the start who's been excellent and then Trent Boult, similar to Shaheen probably. Lockie Ferguson probably similar to Haris Rauf. So, a lot of similarities, but I think we'll take our learnings from this game and then try and adapt for next game.