The Dutch Women’s Cricket team (season 2010)

16 December 2010 - The year 2010 was an important year for the Dutch Women’s cricket team. The preparations started in January and we set ourselves three major goals.

1. Winning the ECB Women’s County Championships, England
First, the ECB Women’s County Championship in England. The Dutch team participates in this English competition to play more matches at a challenging international level. This year we had to compete with the county teams of Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Durham and Cornwall.

In May we played matches against Northamptonshire and Derbyshire. We started against Northamptonshire. After losing early wickets we managed to get a decent first innings score of 208. Northamptonshire was all out for 134. The day after we played Derbyshire at a nice batting surface. After winning the toss we chose to bat first. Although we had a great start with 49 runs in 7 overs for no wickets, the team became foolhardy resulting in 142 all out. A disappointing score knowing that teams scored 300 plus runs on this pitch a week before. Some quick wickets at the start of the second innings brought us back on track, but good batting of one of the Derbyshire players brought their team home in the 30th over with two wickets in hand.

The third match was played in Cornwall in June. After a day of rain on Saturday, the weather was pretty good on Sunday. The pitch and outfield were even better, so a good toss to win. Our captain won the toss and elected to bat. The  first wicket fell at 95 and this score proved to be a good springboard for the rest of the team. After 50 overs we finished our innings on a total of 309 runs. After lunch Cornwall started batting, losing 6 wickets before reaching 50 runs, and that made us win the match already in this stage of the game. But instead of finishing off the match, we let Cornwall bat till the 49th over, scoring 132 runs.

Durham was our next opponent. We travelled up to the North to play a team which was the then number one in the table. Because the pitch looked a bit unreliable and the conditions were overcast, we preferred to bowl first. Unfortunately we lost the toss and we were sent in to bat. In the beginning scoring was difficult because of the swing of the ball. But after some good partnerships we ended up with a total of 244. Durham missed their main batsman due to a broken wrist and struggled with their batting. After 30 overs we bowled them all out for 74 runs.

The last match was played at Fairfield Park in Letchworth against Hertfordshire. Because our loss against Derbyshire earlier in the competition we not only had to win but also had to take bonus points. In the ECB Women’s County Championships you get points by winning matches but also by scoring a certain number of runs and taking the opponent’s wickets.  Again we had to bat first where we preferred bowling. But despite of the difficult circumstances we started well. With contributions of all of our batsmen we made a total of 246 and took some bonus points. Due to excellent Dutch bowling only one player of Hertfordshire ended up with double figures resulting in 63 all out. This win was good enough to win the competition and promote to the next level, Division 3, in 2011.

2. Qualifying for the World Cup Qualifiers
In August, the European Cricket Board organised the European World Cup Qualifiers in Stirling, Scotland. This is a tournament ahead of the World Cup Qualifiers in Bangladesh next year. Only two European teams can qualify for this event. Three teams were participating for qualification, Ireland, Scotland and The Netherlands. The English Development XI were participating as well.

Our tournament started against the English Development XI. The English Development XI is a team of young players who are on the doorstep of England’s national squad. These players are part of the England Academy and the tournament in Stirling offered the England selectors an opportunity to watch the skills of their players against quality opposition-us! For our team this first match was a good opportunity to get used to the circumstances like the weather and, more importantly, the pitch. 

Result: 
England Development XI (244 all out) versus Netherlands (245 for 4 wickets); Netherlands won by 6 wickets.
This was a great, unexpected start of the tournament, because in all our previous matches against England development teams we had always lost.
The next match was played against Ireland. Ireland is ranked number 9 in the World and has a good experienced and balanced team. In difficult circumstances, wet field and slow pitch, we had a not so great batting innings, but in our second innings had a good fight-back and managed to take 7 wickets and put a lot of pressure on the last Irish batsmen. In the end we lost the match narrowly, by 3 wickets.

Result:
The Netherlands (129 for 9 wickets) versus Ireland (130 for 7 wickets); Ireland won by 3 wickets.
The last match was scheduled against Scotland. An important match because the winning team would qualify  - along with Ireland - for the World Cup Qualifiers.

Result:
The Netherlands (250 for 4 wickets) versus Scotland (191 for 8 wickets); Netherlands won by 59 runs
With this last win The Netherlands did qualify for the World Cup Qualifiers in Bagladesh in 2011, bringing our team another step further towards competing in the World Cup in India in 2013.

3. Winning matches at the Women’s Cricket Challenge
In South Africa (Potchefstroom) our last target could be reached. The International Cricket Council organised a tournament between the numbers 5 to 10 of the world in order to re-rank these countries. The participating countries were South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ireland and the Netherlands. The Netherlands were number 10 in the world at that time and by winning matches we could climb in ranking.

Results:
West Indies (283 for 6) versus The Netherlands (135 for 8); West Indies won by 148 runs
Sri Lanka (245 for 8) versus The Netherlands (195 v 8); Sri Lanka won by 50 runs
Pakistan (258 for 9) versus The Netherlands (213 all out); Pakistan won by 45 runs
South Africa (113 for 0) versus The Netherlands (109 all out); South Africa won by 10 wickets
Ireland (175 for 2) versus The Netherlands (172 for 10); Ireland won by 8 wickets

Although we lost all matches in South Africa and stayed number 10 in the world ranking, we had some competitive matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. We showed that we are able to compete with those countries.

Looking back to our goals, we achieved winning the ECB Women’s County Championships and gain promotion to the next level. And even more important: we qualified for the World Cup Qualifiers in Bangladesh! With these events scheduled for next season, The Dutch Women’s Cricket team is looking forward to another big season. 

For me personally the season went well. Not an excellent year with the bat but definitely a very good one with the gloves. Fitness-wise, I benefited from the Plantina products: by recovering fast after strenuous matches I was able to perform at the best possible level.  

Agenda 2011
April: preparation tour in Sri Lanka
April: practice matches against Warwickshire in The Netherlands
 June, July and August: ECB County Championships
August: European Championships in The Netherlands (Deventer) 
November: World Cup Qualifiers in Bangladesh