Nagpur: England won but skipper Andrew Strauss was livid and for some time left "shell-shocked" by his bowlers' "exceptionally poor" effort in the last 10 overs which allowed the Netherlands to set a formidable target and give his team quite a scare in its World Cup opener here.
Strauss said his team was "untidy" in the field and the bowling was very poor as it allowed the Dutch to rake up 292 for six in 50 overs here on Tuesday night.
For the first 50 overs we were very poor. We were exceptionally poor in the last 10 overs. You don't drop so many catches. We were untidy in the field. At the break, we were a bit of shell-shocked as to what happened in the last 10 overs," Strauss conceded at the post-match media conference.
"The wicket was a bit on the flatter side and the outfield was quick. We would have been happy to settle down for 240-250 but we gave away 40 runs more. However we can't take away any credit from Ryan ten Doeschate for the manner in which he batted. We have seen what he has done for Essex but to do it on a big stage is a difficult thing," he added.
All-rounder Doeschate first smashed 119 runs before chipping in with the ball as well by grabbing a couple of wickets to be the star of the evening despite the Dutch loss.
Compared to their comfortable victory against Pakistan in the warm-up game, Strauss agreed that it was one day when everything went haywire in the first session as they allowed Holland to compile 292 in their 50 overs.
England were erroneous in the field as they misjudged catches and also allowed the Dutch batsmen to take easy singles and twos.
However, the Englishmen survived the scare after scripting a successful run chase and Strauss said he was comfortable with the manner they chased down the score.
"I don't think we were ever under pressure. We had things under control from the start. I would say KP also batted well although some of the shots went to the fielder.
"The short cover must be having sore hands today. But putting on 100 runs for the first wicket was a good effort.
May be it got a bit tight in the end as we didn't use the Powerplays pretty well," he said.
Asked if bowling was a cause of worry ahead of their match against India, the skipper said, "Hopefully, India will take us lightly. Generally we raise our game against better sides. In Bangalore, it will be an electric atmosphere and hopefully, we will put up a better show."
He defended Stuart Broad saying that the pacer bowled a hostile spell but it was one such wicket where it was difficult to contain the batsman.
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