Guys will be hurting, semifinals looks a bit distant now: Cook

New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) Netherlands coach Ryan Cook admitted their dream of reaching the semifinal at the ongoing World Cup “looks a bit distant” following the drubbing that the team got at the hands of Australia here.

The Dutch team lost by 309 runs — the biggest in tournament history — against Australia, their fourth loss to lie at the bottom of the points table.

The Dutch team will face Bangladesh in their next assignment, before taking on Afghanistan, England and India.

“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,” Cook said after the match.

“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.”

“I think the guys will be very disappointed out there in the change room. We talked a good game before the game, and we didn’t play a good game of cricket today,” Cook added.

“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 we pride ourselves on as a team and we’ll be able to get back up for the next game and learn our lessons from that. But the guys will be hurting in the changing room for sure.”

Cool challenge to bowl to Maxwell: Van Beek

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The Netherlands bowling completely fell apart in the face of a brutal assault from Glenn Maxwell at the back end as they were left with a mountain to climb after Australia posted 399 for 8.

One of the bowlers who was at the receiving end of Maxwell’s onslaught was Logan van Beek, who was smashed for two maximums.

“Well, it has to be one of the best (innings). I think some of the shots he played, in particular those reverse shots were superb. I was bowling at the end there and I didn’t miss by much and he tied me over backward point.

“The uniqueness of Maxwell is that Bas is trying to bowl to the leg side, and he can reverse you over the off side,” Logan van Beek, who conceded two sixes to Maxwell in the next over, said after the match.

“As a bowler, you’re thinking: ‘I want to get hit to the leg side, but he’s just hit my leg-side ball over cover for six; where do I go next?’ I think it’s the fact that he can assess the situation, assess the plan of the bowler, and find a way to counteract it. He won’t necessarily wait for the bowler to miss, but he will create a miss.

“In a funny way, it was actually a really cool challenge to to bowl to a guy in that mood.”

Maxwell was particularly harsh on Bas de Leede, who ended up conceding 115 runs to go with his two wickets in his quota of 10 overs, the most expensive ODI spell in history.

“Now he’s human. He’s known as Super Bas. Obviously, that’s really tough, but Bas is a pretty relaxed and chill guy, pretty realistic guy, and he will be more looking at his execution rather than the record.

“And he’s not the first guy to be hit for 100 in a one day game and I think he would rather be in the moment doing it than not being here at all. So I think you’d rather fail in that moment, then not be here at all.

“So he’s going to be a far better cricketer come into the future and he’s already full of talent, but that’s just going to. I think that’s going to be something that will galvanise him and will make him work even harder.”