Netherlands v Bangladesh 1st T20I Live and Preview

Bangladesh take on Netherlands in the first of two T20Is that will be played on Wednesday at The Hague.

They were flying high. They aimed for even higher. But they have been brought back to a shocking reality. Bangladesh stuttered their way to a shock defeat against Scotland yesterday, and that leaves them with some amends to make when they clash with the Netherlands on their last two matches of the European tour.

When they arrived in Netherlands, they were on cloud number nine. Having whitewashed Ireland and also stormed their way to fourth position on the ICC T20 rankings, Bangladesh were not expecting the treatment they got against Scotland.

Richie Barrington plundered a century and the shocks of the pounding were felt all the way to the end, with the Bangladeshi batsmen also finding it difficult to get going. Shakib al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal managed double-figures as coach Richard Pybus looks to seek more consistency from his players.

Its not like the team has become bad overnight. But the self-belief went missing somewhere when they were taken on by the opposition. The shocks of that will have to be overcome by the coaching staff as they prepare the team for a fresh start.

Netherlands will look to draw inspiration from the wholehearted efforts of their Scottish neighbors. Playing in home conditions, in front of an expectantly reasonable crowd, Netherlands will be looking to carry on what has been a good build up to the series.

They beat UAE in consecutive one-day matches after showing competitiveness in all departments of the game. The task now is to repeat the performance against a test playing nation. But Netherlands are never short of surprises still, having beaten England in ICC World T20 back in 2009.

The match will be played at the same venue as Bangladesh’s last match - at The Hague - and is expected to be a batting-friendly wicket yet again.