Netherlands trained in the afternoon session before the USA game.
Netherlands head coach Ryan Cook rued the lack of opportunities to train under the lights ahead of the USA clash. While refusing to use it as an excuse, Cook felt that it definitely played a role in their defeat in Chennai last night.
“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. So this is our first time to play under lights since Bangladesh, [for] which some of our players weren’t there.”
On Thursday (February 12), Netherlands trained from 2-5 PM in Chennai on the match eve and went off without getting any hits under lights. Additionally, they played only three completed Day-Night or Night games between the two T20 World Cups, one against Oman and two against Bangladesh, with the most recent in September last year.
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In the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026, Netherlands played the first two games against Pakistan and Namibia in the morning slot, with matches starting at 11:00 AM. Meanwhile, USA had both games at night and against the best teams in the group, India and Pakistan, which helped them adapt quickly and stifle Netherlands with the spin duo of Harmeet Singh and Mohammad Mohsin.
Netherlands are not the only team to complain about not getting exposure under lights in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. Earlier, Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus had also called out the scheduled training session that didn’t allow them to train under floodlights before the India clash.
The associate teams usually don’t get enough night matches, with most of their qualifying and other games being played during the day. Hence, training becomes their only way to prepare for unknown territories, and once that also doesn’t happen, they are bound to face more challenges.
The conditions change drastically under the lights, and dew becomes an unpredictable factor. For instance, Netherlands opted to field first against USA based on the IPL 2025 pattern, thinking that dew might make batting easier in the second innings.
Unfortunately, dew didn’t come at all, which allowed USA spinners to grip the ball better, as they shared as many as seven wickets among them. The Dutch were far more impressive in both of their day fixtures, pushing Pakistan to the brink in a near-upset and cruising past Namibia with a commanding seven-wicket victory.
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