Twenty20 World Cup / Ryan ten doeschate / 07 June 2009 / Leave a comment

As the dust settles on Holland's win over England on Friday night, Ryan ten Doeschate tells us about preparations ahead of the Pakistan match and "keeping it real" in a Holland camp where unity and hard work are the key words.

I am writing these notes just before we return to the serious stuff of the T20 World Cup with a training session at Lord's.

Although the reaction to Friday's win over England has been fantastic, the level has been set now and I feel it would be foolish just to live off this victory and see it as a case of "job done".

We want to keep putting in performances that are worthy of us being here. We feel we can compete with the top teams now and we have another of them coming up on Tuesday in the form of Pakistan.

On the batting side, it could not have gone any better on Friday but I always said the pace at this level is a big issue for us. So today it is case of cranking up the bowling machine, hitting a length and facing some really quick deliveries. Pakistan have two left-arm seamers so we'll be practising left-arm over the wicket too. I imagine there will be a tough fielding session and, as for the bowling, it is a matter of keeping the guys bowling down nice, straight lines.

The win over England has made a difference to us. During our trip to London on Saturday and back at the hotel, people recognised us and said 'well done, you deserved it'.

Meanwhile we got 10 minutes on the main sports magazine show in Holland on Saturday night. That does not sound much but they don't have a rolling show like Sky Sports News so the guys feel that was pretty massive for us.

Just to put things into perspective, Holland don't have a shirt sponsor- no logos, nothing. So this tournament may be an important stepping stone for us. If we get through to the Super Eights we could be playing the likes of India, Australia and South Africa. That is a great chance to get a couple more of our players on to professional contracts and improve the sport's overall infrastructure back in Holland.

Of course money is always a crucial way of developing the sport but so is exposure. You want people in Holland to see cricket is an exciting sport that can draw big crowds, like football.

Elsewhere in the tournament, Scotland nearly pulled off another shock against New Zealand in a rain-reduced seven-over thrash on Saturday. They could not quite pull it off and couple of reasons stuck out to me. Firstly, Scotland did not score off their last three balls. I know it doesn't sound much but I worked out that is about eight per cent of their innings. And that is where you look to pick up the odd boundary or two.

To make matters worse, they bowled no balls when they were defending a small total. That is something the Scots are not known for and I think they will be waking up today ruing a missed opportunity. I suppose a mild upset was West Indies beating Australia on the same day. Their hitting, especially Chris Gayle, was just ridiculous. When he fires I don't think any bowler can really stop him.

Still, right now, my focus is purely on Holland. After this morning's session a lot of the squad are going to watch England v Pakistan at the Oval, a game that could be crucial to our chances of progression.

However, I am not. I am going to stay away from it and rest up. I have a bit of laundry to do and I have to tidy up my hotel room. I bought some DVDs yesterday so I'll watch those and keep a lazy eye on the cricket. That may all sound a little strange in an age of millionaire cricketers but there's no heirs and graces in this Dutch squad. I think that is important. We just have to keep doing what we have been doing. Keep working hard and keep that fighting 'underdog' mentality day in and day out.

And by this evening we'll know just what we have to do on Tuesday against Pakistan.