New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) Netherlands all-rounder Colin Ackermann said his side’s batting display in their three-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the first game of 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup was ‘a bit of an outlier’ and vowed the team would iron out mistakes in the coming matches, starting from the one against Namibia to be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

Netherlands will be looking for greater stability at the top after their batsmen failed to convert starts into substantial scores against Pakistan, with only two players passing 30. Partnerships were also hard to come by, with just two stands of more than 30.

They began brightly against Pakistan by scoring 79 in the first 10 overs before a collapse in the final four overs saw them lose six wickets for 20 runs, leaving them short of the 160-mark they were expected to hit at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

“I think we were on track for a total of around 170 after the 15-over mark. We had only lost three or four wickets for about 125 runs. It just didn’t happen for us on the day. One of the strengths of this team is that we have quite a few all-rounders who can bat deep. So I think that game was a bit of an outlier. We spoke about it in the batting meeting this morning, and we’ll look to rectify it in the coming games,” said Ackermann, while replying to a query from IANS in the pre-match press conference on Monday.

What also hurt Netherlands cause was opener Max O’Dowd dropping a crucial catch of Faheem Ashraf in the penultimate over. Asked if Netherlands would have extra catching practice in the light of that dropped catch by O’Dowd, Ackermann said, “There hasn’t been extra fielding practice. We only got to Delhi yesterday. But Max is good. There were obviously many other moments in the game where we could have done better.

“If we look at the last five overs of our batting, if we had added another 15–20 runs, that could have been the difference. There are around 240 moments in a T20 game, so we need to be better in those other moments as well.”

“From the games played here, it looks like a slightly higher-scoring ground than the one in Colombo. We knew coming into this tournament that we’d be playing four games in four different venues, so communication is key once the game starts tomorrow,” he elaborated.

As per Ackermann, head coach Ryan Cook told the players to move on from the near-miss against Pakistan and focus on getting a win over Namibia to get their Group A campaign back on track. “Yes, it was naturally a very disappointing result for us. But the nature of this tournament is that the games come thick and fast – so we’ve parked that.

“Part of the DNA of this Netherlands team is that we take ownership of our performances and our roles, and we learn from past experiences. When we got off the bus in Delhi, coach Ryan Cook said the past is the past – there’s nothing we can do about it and we must look forward to the next game against Namibia.

“We have great self-belief as a team. We’ve shown in the past that we can compete with Test nations, so there’s a lot of confidence in the group. This group has worked extremely hard over the last six months to become the best version of themselves, and I’m sure you’ll see that in the next three games,” he added.

Ackermann signed off by saying that having psychologist Tom Dawson-Squibb as part of the backroom staff has been a welcome addition. “Yes, Tom has been a great addition to the coaching staff. He works with us off the field to help us get the best out of ourselves. We’ve developed a technique where each of us has two words that mean a lot to us out in the middle.

“Those words are printed on the inside of our playing shirts. So whenever you’re in doubt or lacking clarity, you can look at them. He’s worked with us in that regard, and there are a few other things as well, but I won’t go into those here.”

–IANS

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