Who would’ve thought before the start of the World Cup that Australia would enter the match against the Netherlands under a bit of pressure? But the Dutch team’s confident run has made this happen.
Australia started the tournament with back-to-back losses against India and South Africa, and for a while it seemed like the mighty Aussies had fallen as they were placed in the ninth spot on the points table. But Australia being Australia, showed the cricketing world they are not down and out yet with back-to-back wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The World Cup campaign is back on track for Pat Cummins and Co. but the pressure is still there with the semi-final race heating up as they will be up against a spirited Dutch side at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.
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The stakes will be high for Australia as compared to the Netherlands as an upset will derail the five-time champions’ campaign completely. Meanwhile, the Netherlands will look to bounce back to winning ways having lost their previous game to Sri Lanka after they tamed South Africa in a thrilling clash in Dharmsala.
The Dutch have shown fighting character against the big sides thus far and Australia need to be a bit wary of that and they are as Mitchell Marsh admitted that there are no easy games in the World Cup.
Marsh replied to News18 CricketNext’s query in the pre-match conference on Tuesday and suggested that every game is high pressure for them after losing a couple of matches.
“I think every game from here on is really important for every team that’s in the World Cup. We’ve seen some teams that have lost a couple. And as I said earlier, there’s no easy games in this World Cup. And whoever holds that trophy in a couple of weeks’ time will deserving winners, because every game’s high pressure. It’s a World Cup. You’re playing in front of the amazing Indian fans that are so passionate. And it’s been a great experience. But yeah, every game there’s high pressure and high stakes,” Marsh said.
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The Aussie all-rounder also talked about the major upsets in the tournaments thus far and asserted that teams like Afghanistan and Netherlands performing well against the heavyweights is a great advertisement for the game.
“Yeah, teams have got better. I think that’s great for world cricket, certainly in tournaments like this that can sometimes be pretty long. And you see a lot of games that are not exactly close or competitive. But we’ve said it multiple times now in this tournament this year, there’s absolutely no easy games. And you go into every game having done all the appropriate homework and hopefully, you can come out with a win. So, tomorrow is no different for us. We respect the Netherlands; they’re playing some good cricket and that will be a tough challenge,” he added.
Travis Head was one hot topic of discussion during the press conference as Marsh suggested that the team management will take the decision on his availability at the end of the day.
Head took part in the evening net session on Monday where he looked decent but decided to skip the training on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Marsh took part in the training session a day before the match but didn’t bat longer as the nets were occupied by David Warner, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne for the majority of the time. The Troika faced the spinners and throw-downs in the nets as Warner was the one who looked in best of touches. On the other hand, Smith looked to channelise the aggressive side and tried to hit big shots. Labuschagne attempted a few sweep shots but found a bit of difficulty connecting them.
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After completing his session, Smith had a chat with Andrew McDonald about his batting as the Aussie head coach advised the batter to make some little adjustments while going on the backfoot.
Alex Carey was another batter who took part in the session and batted under the watchful eyes of Andy Flower. The wicketkeeper batter might get a nod over Josh Inglish in the Netherlands clash as the latter has not been able to create any major impact thus far in the tournament.
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