Dutch ready for Bangladesh in Kolkata

Dutch skipper Scott Edwards hopes the Netherlands can benefit from coach Ryan Cook’s inside knowledge of Bangladesh to help rescue their fading World Cup dreams.The two sides meet at Eden Gardens today with identical records of one win and four losses each. One more defeat will signal the end of any lingering hopes of making the semi-finals.Cook worked as fielding coach with Bangladesh during the 2019 World Cup and Edwards hopes that could work in the team’s favour."It’s definitely a help for us, especially in terms of that sort of analyst side,” said Edwards on Friday."He worked for a long time with the Bangladesh team and knows a lot of these guys individually.”However, he added: "There’s some new players (in the Bangladesh squad), but we’ll take what information we can from him and try to apply that into the game. Execution will be the key.”Bangladesh and the Netherlands have only met twice before in one-day internationals.The Dutch won by six wickets in Glasgow in 2010 while Bangladesh came out on top by the same margin at the 2011 World Cup on home ground in Chittagong.Whatever happens today, Edwards insists that his team’s shock victory over South Africa gave them self-belief.Now, if they get the opportunities, they want to use that breakthrough for greater consistency."When we beat South Africa, our goal was always to come and win four of our first eight games and push for a semi-final spot,” said Edwards of the 38-run win in Dharamsala."We had big expectations coming through and obviously winning against South Africa was one step forward and we probably just haven’t hit the mark fully in a lot of the other games we’ve played,” he said.They suffered a reality check last time out, losing by 309 runs to Australia.Edwards insists he is not concerned by playing in Kolkata where Bangladesh are guaranteed huge support from the local Bengali-speaking population.Shakib’s trip to Dhaka didn’t affect Bangladesh squad, says TaskinThe Bangladesh squad were not affected by skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s unplanned trip to Dhaka in the middle of their World Cup campaign and they appreciate the fact that he went to hone his technique, Taskin Ahmed said on Friday.Shakib travelled to Dhaka this week and local media reported he had a three-hour net session with his childhood mentor, before returning to Kolkata where Bangladesh play the Netherlands today.When asked if team morale had taken a hit when Shakib left the squad, Taskin told reporters: "No, actually it’s not affected (us) much. I think after he came back, we had a really good time. But actually, he went for some improvements, he has not batted as well as he expected.”Kolkata will host its first World Cup game today and Taskin said he expects a very good wicket. "Normally when I played here before, it’s a very good batting track. The outfield is pretty fast. But I think both bowlers and batsman are going to get some help,” he said.Taskin said Bangladesh’s fielding has come good in the tournament, partly thanks to their former fielding coach Ryan Cook.