Big Win, Big Dutchmen and Big Brother

Some have called it the worst ever day for English cricket.

I think that's going too far. Last night's defeat was silly and highlighted yet again England's arrogance in thinking theoretically weaker opponents will just roll over and be beaten.

England's innings started well, with the openers giving us a good base to build on in the later overs. As the halfway point passed we were still no closer to the sort of big hitting that Twenty20 requires. In fact I have to say I found our innings quite boring - I even, shamefully, resorted to watching 5 minute snippets of Big Brother Launch Night on Sky+ then flicking back onto the cricket and could calculate quite easily that I hadn't missed any boundaries. And if England thought they shouldn't send in Key at 3 to hit the big shots, why oh why did they think it was better to send him in at 6 to face just 8 balls? The glowing 0 in the 6 column of England's scorecard could tell anybody that our chances of winning were slim.

Bowling-wise England were not outstanding, but they cannot be blamed for our defeat in this game. The selection of Rashid over Swann is one I can't understand; others have said Rashid's economy rate of 9 an over is not shameful - but when the initial run rate was less than 9 I think he should be pretty disappointed.

Fielding was, I believe, the area that let England down. We have a side full of excellent fielders but the whole England side seemed to panic when they realised they were actually going to have to fight to win this game. We had plenty of opportunities for runouts that could have ended the game and to lose on overthrows really says it all. That is not to say I blame Stuart Broad for shying at the stumps; it was the right thing to do but from that distance he really should have hit!

What I will say is that despite my high heartrate, I really enjoyed the Dutch innings. It was tremendously exciting and BB forgotten as their tenacious batsmen operated on the basis of 'no dot balls' with big shots thrown in as well. And I couldn't help but be pleased for the Associate side and feel their excitement as they twitched and trembled on the boundary during the last couple of overs.

The Netherlands thoroughly deserved their win. England were poor and the Dutch were better. What remains to be seen now is whether England are capable of regrouping and pushing the boundaries, both literally and metaphorically, in the match against Pakistan and, hopefully, beyond.