NEW DELHI-West Indies needs to set aside its troubled start to the World Cup when it takes on a buoyant Netherlands team looking to cause an upset in Group B tomorrow. Losing Dwayne Bravo for the tournament to a knee injury sustained during an opening seven-wicket defeat by South Africa has left West Indies wary of a slip-up against a Dutch side that nearly earned a shock win over England.
West Indies coach Ottis Gibson says smaller teams want to "prove a point" at this World Cup after the ICC's move to reduce their numbers in 2015.
His worry is that his West Indies side-out of form and now forced into a new tactical approach without its best allrounder-will provide an ideal target for the underdog at New Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.
Gibson is also well-aware of the giant-killing ability of the Dutch having been England's bowling coach when Netherlands stunned the host nation at the World Twenty20 in 2009. On Saturday, Gibson said he still remembers what the England dressing room felt like, and what the noisy Dutch celebrations sounded like, following that huge upset at Lord's. "A lot has been said about the minnows," the West Indies coach added. "The lesser teams are here to prove a point and they (Netherlands) did prove a point against England.
"We expect those guys, when they come to an event like this, to come with a lot of energy and come with the expectation of upsetting one of the big teams and our fortunes of late do not suggest that we are a big team." Netherlands has its best player-allrounder Ryan ten Doeschate-in top form following a century and 2-47 against England in Nagpur. West Indies, however, has now lost Bravo, wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh and batsman Adrian Barath to injury over the past two weeks, while allrounders Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy and Chris Gayle contributed a total of two runs and one wicket between them against South Africa. West Indies has also lost its last eight ODIs.
"Of course the results in the last couple of years don't suggest West Indies are a big team," Gibson said, "and that's for people to say, but what we know and what we believe is that we are still a big team and we just have to prove that. "The only way we can prove it is with performances on the field." The Netherlands team is also under pressure, coach Peter Drinnen said, but its pressure is from within to keep lifting its game against the bigger teams. "We obviously expect certain standards from ourselves," Drinnen said. "We expect to do certain things in the middle and in the first game we achieved quite a lot. For the Caribbean team, Bravo's absence is a "big setback," according to Gibson, and he is likely to change his team's setup for Monday's match and not rely as heavily as he planned on the allrounders.
West Indies will probably name an established batsman at No. 6 in place of Bravo and could also bolster its fast bowling-where Kemar Roach fought a lone battle against the Proteas. But West Indies is helped by having played its first match on the Kotla pitch, which returned to international cricket in this World Cup after a long absence and can be tricky to predict.