Pushing for semifinals looks a bit distant at the moment, admits Netherlands head coach Ryan Cook

New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) After suffering a 309-run hammering at the hands of five-time champions Australia in the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup, Netherlands head coach Ryan Cook admitted the side’s push for reaching the semi-final stage looks a bit distant at the moment.

After conceding 399-8 to Australia, with Glenn Maxwell smashing the fastest century in the history of the tournament and David Warner making his sixth World Cup century, Netherlands crumbled like a pack of cards and were bowled out for just 90 in 21 overs.

“We're going to back ourselves against any team that we come up against. Obviously, we do have four more matches left and we'll be aiming to try and get as many victories as we can. We said that at the start of the tournament when we got here that we'll sort of be pushing for semi-finals.”

“That looks a bit distant at the moment but obviously if we can get a couple of wins along the way from any of the teams that we come up against we'll be preparing really well for that and we're trying our best to make that happen,” said Cook in the post-match press conference.

He also admitted that Netherlands were lacking in execution of their plans against Australia and stressed upon the need to play consistently if they were to upstage bigger teams in the global tournament.

“The guys will be very disappointed out there in the change room. We talked a good game before the game, as you say, and we didn't play a good game of cricket today. We didn't execute our plans quite like we wanted to and then the fight that we have shown in lots of the matches we saw only glimpses of that and we need to play better cricket for a lot longer if we're going to compete with teams like Australia.”

“Resilience is something as I say we pride ourselves on as a team We'll be able to get back up for the next game and learn our lessons from that. But, it's firmly ours and the prize of the next game, but the guys will be hurting in the changing room for sure,” he added.

Cook felt Netherlands had a bit of up and down day in the field, while pointing out that the team made some incredible stops on the field. But one dropped catch of Maxwell when at 26 by Teja Nidamanuru, which he couldn’t hold back while running from mid-off, turned out to be a very expensive reprieve.

“The guys threw themselves around. The effort was outstanding. There was a lot of saves all over the park and a lot of action on the field all around. There were a couple of moments there that we had a couple of chances to be able to take and a couple of ones where we made some great pieces of fielding as well.”

“So, we'll have to go back, look at the debrief and see where we were on the run saved and all that kind of stuff. But, when these types of players give you chances, even if they're half chances, you do have to take them to be able to give yourself a good chance of victory,” he concluded.