'Haven't had any practices': Netherlands head coach opens up on their loss against USA in Chennai

New Delhi:

The Netherlands faced a hefty loss against the USA in game 21 of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. The two sides locked horns at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on February 13, and the USA managed to completely dominate Holland and registered a 93-run victory as well. 

After the loss, the Netherlands’ head coach Ryan Cook came forward and talked about how lack of practice under the lights was one of the biggest reasons why they lost the clash against the USA. 

"We haven't had any practices under lights yet, so we had a rained-off practice and a rained-off match [against Bangladesh in Sylhet]. Yesterday [Thursday] we weren't allowed to play under lights [Netherlands trained from 2-5pm IST on the eve of the game]. So this is our first time to play under lights since Bangladesh, [for] which some of our players weren't there,” Cook was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. 

"So it is obviously quite new for most of the guys. But that's not an excuse for us, we've got to go out there and do the business, the guys have done it before at these events. Just a poor night for us pretty much,” he added. 

Cook also spoke up about the lack of dew

Furthermore, the head coach also gave his take on how there was no dew in the game. Chasing down a target of 197 runs, the Netherlands was bundled out for 103, leaving a significant gap in the batting prowess of the two sides on the day. 

"There was no dew out there tonight, so obviously their [USA's] spinners were able to grip the ball really well. So, we'll obviously look at that decision-making as well in terms of what we wanted to do first, but again, we didn't execute with the ball, we didn't execute with the bat, and it's as simple as that,” Cook said. 

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