All posts by n8rngtd.top

Glasgow Rangers manager Philippe Clement had plenty of work to do during the summer transfer window, mainly getting high earners off the wage bill in order to rebuild his squad and sign his own targets.

It is certainly a work in progress, with the Belgian coming in for some criticism about how his team have performed this term, especially domestically. Indeed. The Light Blues have scored only 16 goals in 11 Premiership matches, the same as tenth-placed St Johnstone.

Moving on those who weren’t contributing is a start, but will it guarantee long-term success?

How Rangers reduced their wage bill

As the 2023/24 campaign was approaching the end, Clement had five players who were heading into the final few weeks of their contracts.

It remained to be seen just who the Belgian would keep at the club, but in the end, Kemar Roofe, Borna Barisic, John Lundstram, Ryan Jack and Jon McLaughlin were all told they would be free to find a new club.

This saved the club around £83k-per-week, allowing Clement some flexibility in the market.

Despite this, there is still a player who is currently on the wage bill, despite being loaned out and it is clear he should be sold at the earliest opportunity – Ben Davies.

Ben Davies' numbers in his Rangers career

Davies joined the Light Blues from Liverpool in a deal worth £4m two summers ago as Giovanni van Bronckhorst aimed to bolster a squad which had won the Scottish Cup and reached the Europa League final.

He endured a difficult start, missing several games due to injury, but by the end of the campaign, the Englishman had made 38 appearances as the club failed to win a trophy.

The defender came in for criticism following a 3-2 defeat to Celtic which practically ended the Gers title hopes, failing to clear the ball, which allowed the Parkhead side to score an easy goal.

Former Light Blues striker Kenny Miller lashed out at Davies for his error, saying: “It’s a wonderful finish. Again he’s alert, alive, ruthless when the chance drops. But it’s so poor from Ben Davies. He should be heading that out.”

Last season, Davies made just 17 appearances for the club as it became clear Clement didn’t see a future for him in Glasgow.

Over these two years, however, he has cost the Ibrox side a fortune.

How much Rangers wasted on Ben Davies

The former Liverpool defender earned £27k-per-week during his two seasons with the club, which was more than the likes of Jack Butland and Abdallah Sima.

He even took home more per week than big-money forward Danilo, who had cost Michael Beale £6m in 2023, proving just how much money was wasted on the centre-back.

Adding his £4m transfer fee to the £2.8m that he received in annual wages during 2022/23 and 2023/24 shows that the club have spent a total of £6.8m on the player.

It is yet another case of splurging on someone who failed to live up to the hype. Hopefully, Clement will avoid moves like these.

Rangers missed out on SPFL titan who's now worth £6m & better than Propper

Rangers failed to sign a player last summer who is starring in the Champions League this term

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By
Ross Kilvington

Nov 9, 2024

We asked readers what their superstitions were while watching the IPL

16-Apr-2015Navratna Ojha
I try not to miss a single ball on commentary. The moment I do, a wicket falls and this only happens with the team I support.Rahil Arora
I am a huge KKR fan from the very first IPL. My superstitions are based on the team’s previous performances. For example, KKR cannot win the IPL if they win the first match of the season! Even though I am a huge fan, I think this will be true even this season.Shivaan Shah
I’m from Mumbai and my superstition is that I never watch the toss on TV, I always read about it instead.Murali Maankar
Being a huge fan of Rohit Sharma, I try to eat when he bats; when he got his first double-hundred I was eating at a roadside shop and watching it at a nearby television.Neil Bennett
I always feed my rabbit during the strategic time-out. I don’t know why but the two minutes is just long enough to go the garden and be back in my seat ready for the resumption of play.Abhisek Bera
I have a superstition that before every KKR match, I must play all the KKR songs. If I miss it, somehow the team will lose and it happened this time around too!Subhaditya Tripathy
I sit in my favourite yellow chair with a with a blue pillow, wearing my white t-shirt and pants, and make sure no one touches me till the end of the match.Dharmin Doshi
My superstition is quite weird when it comes to my favourite team in the IPL. If something dramatic happens in favour of my favourite team and if I think of a person at that moment, then I continue to think of that person for rest of the match! Quite weird but that’s how it is.Rahul Patil
I have a superstition – while watching my favourite team play (i.e KKR), I keep the remote of the TV in my right hand and never take it in my left hand. Although it hurts sometime but this has helped my team win many times.

West Ham star Jarrod Bowen walked the red carpet with "proud" fiancee Dani Dyer at the London premiere of Danny Dyer's new film "Marching Powder".

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• The Dyer family came together for the film premiere
• Bowen joined them in tow with Dani in a tuxedo
• The couple looked dapper on red carpet

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  The couple posed for the paparazzi, with Dani beaming with pride as she supported her father’s latest cinematic endeavour. The former Love Island star opted for an elegant black floral-embellished dress, while West Ham and England winger Bowen looked effortlessly stylish in a navy zip-up polo layered under a matching wool coat. The occasion became a true family affair, as Sunnie Dyer, Danny’s 17-year-old daughter, also made a striking entrance in a sleek off-the-shoulder black dress.

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• WHAT DANI DYER SAID

  Dani wrote on Instagram: "What an amazing night for the premiere of @marchingpowderthemovie I am just so so proud of you @officialdannydyer I know how much last night meant to you and everyone is sooo proud, what a film!! Well done to everyone involved, I want to watch it all over again… In cinemas this Friday💋"

  Lead actor Danny, meanwhile, has claimed that ‘Marching Powder’ brings a refreshing perspective to the romantic comedy genre, offering an authentic and gritty portrayal of love from a working-class lens.

  "It is something I'm very, very proud of. Because it is a love story; it's a working-class love story," he said. "Classism is a thing, and most rom coms are never set on a council estate. There's Pride & Prejudice, there's someone in f****** britches! You know, a love story where both the man and woman say c***, but in a loving way."

• Getty/Instagram
  

  THE GOSSIP

  Beyond their glamorous public appearances, Bowen and Dani are preparing for a major milestone in their relationship. The couple are set to tie the knot this summer, with a lavish wedding ceremony in the works. Danny has openly expressed his love for Bowen, stating that he already sees him as part of the family and is looking forward to the day he gives his daughter away to a man he deeply respects and admires.

• WHAT NEXT FOR BOWEN?

  While Bowen is making headlines for his personal life, he remains a crucial figure for West Ham United on the pitch. The 28-year-old forward has continued to deliver strong performances whenever fit, scoring eight goals and providing four assists so far this campaign. He is set to return to action on Monday evening, when West Ham take on Newcastle United in a Premier League showdown.

He says his preference is to open in T20Is, while continuing to bat in the middle order in ODIs and Tests

Vishal Dikshit30-Nov-2022Rishabh Pant has said that he would prefer to open in T20Is, while continuing to bat in the middle order in ODIs and Tests. Speaking before the start of the third ODI against New Zealand in Christchurch, Pant said that he is only 25 right now, and pitting white-ball and red-ball numbers against each other should be made only when he is around 30-32, because right now there was “no logic” in such comparisons.”I’d want to open in T20s, No. 4-5 in ODIs and Tests I’m already batting at No. 5,” Pant told Harsha Bhogle on .Bhogle went on to ask indirectly why Pant’s Test numbers looked the best when he came across more as a white-ball player.Related

• New Zealand take ODI series 1-0 after yet another no-result

“Record is just a number, my white-ball record is not bad either,” Pant replied. When Bhogle said he was merely comparing Pant’s Test and white-ball records, Pant said, “Comparison is not a part of my life, I’m just 24-25 so you can compare once I’m 30-32. There’s no logic in comparing before that.”Pant made his India debut in T20Is in February 2017, Test debut in August 2018 and ODI debut two months later in October. While his penchant for pulling off unorthodox shots makes him seem like a natural white-ball batter, especially in T20s, he is more of a certainty in India’s Test XI currently, then in ODIs, and in T20Is at last.In the recent T20 World Cup, Dinesh Karthik started ahead of Pant in the first four games before Pant was brought into the XI in the middle order mainly because India wanted a left-hand batter. Pant, however, scored only 3 against Zimbabwe and 6 opposite England in the semi-final. In the following T20Is in New Zealand, Pant opened but again failed to impress with low scores of 6 and 11 after the first game was washed out.In the ongoing ODIs, in which he is the vice-captain just like for the T20Is, Pant fell twice to the pull shot, something oppositions have planned for to get him out. He chopped on for 15 off 23 in the opening ODI and failed to keep a short ball down on Wednesday in the third ODI to hand a catch to deep square leg for 10 off 16.Pant had earlier said that he doesn’t premeditate much in ODIs, because it’s not required.”It’s mostly in T20s, not in white-ball cricket [that one has to premeditate],” he said. “There’s no real need to premeditate in one-day cricket but you have to in T20s.”Pant averages 43.32 from 31 Tests with the help of five hundreds, four of which have come outside Asia, and only one in India. In ODIs, too, he has been a middle-order mainstay, especially since the 2019 World Cup. He has averaged nearly 40 while scoring 638 runs from 17 innings while striking at 110.76, with one century and five half-centuries.

Glasgow Rangers suffered their third Premiership defeat of the season on Wednesday evening to slip further behind in the race for the title.

Philippe Clement knew that only a win against a wonderful Aberdeen side would get the Ibrox faithful back onside after a difficult start to the season, yet they were subjected to another abject display.

The first half was littered with drama. Aberdeen missed a penalty before the Light Blues had a goal ruled offside as the Dons went into the interval leading 1-0.

Nedim Bajrami equalised, but with 15 minutes remaining, Shayden Morris reacted first to a ball that bounced off the post to lash the ball home for the winner.

Clement will now be left to pick up the pieces after yet another disappointing result, with his players having put in a truly mixed display at Pittodrie.

The best and worst performers for Rangers vs Aberdeen

Bajrami was arguably the Gers’ finest performer on the night. Not only did he score their only goal, but he looked the most likely to make things happen. The Albanian succeeded with all four of his dribbles, made two key passes and created a big chance.

Tom Lawrence, on the other hand, failed to shine, losing possession 13 times while completing just nine passes throughout his 76 minutes on the pitch.

Despite scoring what turned out to be an offside goal, Ross McCausland also could have done better and he was hooked after 45 minutes.

Nobody in the starting XI was as bad as Cyriel Dessers, however, as the Nigerian delivered another dismal performance for the club.

Cyriel Dessers’ stats vs Aberdeen

Considering the 29-year-old hadn’t scored in the Premiership since the end of August, a clash against an in-form Aberdeen side hardly looked like a game in which this barren run was going to come to an end.

Like so often this season, Dessers offered absolutely nothing, failing to link up well with the likes of Bajrami and Lawrence, while it was he who was ruled offside – albeit somewhat controversially – for the disallowed goal.

Dessers took only 20 touches during the game, which was fewer than Jack Butland (29), and the striker somehow managed to complete just six passes, often going missing for large spells of the match.

He also missed a big chance, won zero of the seven duels contested and lost possession eight times. It looked like Clement’s men were playing with ten men in stretches, as Dessers often disappeared.

Clement must now drop the striker, despite not having many options to call upon, as his performances are continually letting the team down in big matches.

Danilo is still out injured, and it remains to be seen when he will return to the starting XI, while Hamza Igamane is inexperienced at this level.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast's Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

The 2-1 loss to the Dons looks certain to have ended any faint title ambitions Rangers had, and they will be lucky to even finish second at this rate.

What next for Clement and his team?

Clement could repeat Balogun success in Rangers swoop for "unplayable" star

Rangers have been linked with a move for the free agent attacker ahead of January.

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By
Dan Emery

Oct 29, 2024

There has been no direct apology yet to the journalist who faced Virat Kohli’s ire but, by stating that “this kind of incident should not be repeated,” an unequivocal message has been sent

Gaurav Kalra05-Mar-2015People get angry. Young. Old. Middle-aged. Anger is human. Often provoked and sometimes, as it appears to have been in Virat Kohli’s case, bubbling beneath the surface. Once it has found an outlet, there is time for reflection. Kohli surely has pondered over his actions but encouragingly, it seems, the BCCI has made a graceful – and swift – overture.In a clear departure from the method adopted by the previous regime, the new dispensation has taken a significant step towards mending a ruptured relationship with the media. There has been no direct apology yet to the journalist who faced Kohli’s ire but, by stating that “this kind of incident should not be repeated,” an unequivocal message has been sent. By asking Kohli to maintain the “dignity of the Indian team,” it has been acknowledged that he did step out of line. There is also a terse warning to “avoid any such behaviour in the future.”When the story first broke on Wednesday morning, it was apparent that the Indian management had not only misjudged its potential fallout but also made a clumsy attempt to brush it aside as a non-event. Despite having had hours to assess the situation and speak to each of the parties involved – the journalist in question, other journalists and onlookers who witnessed the incident and Kohli himself – this was the e-mail sent out to media outlets.Titled “Clarity on yesterday incident” by the media manager of the team in Australia, Dr RN Baba, the e-mail said (sic)- “There was a misunderstanding and no abusive language was used, Virat has spoken to the concerned gentlemen immediately and matter ends….”That was the complete statement. Besides needing a quick check for grammar, this so called “clarification” was strewn with inaccuracies. From all accounts, and not just that of the journalist at the receiving end, “abusive language” was indeed used. If the apology was relayed through another journalist, Kohli did not speak to the “concerned gentlemen” as Dr Baba claimed. In fact, in his official complaint to the ICC chief executive Dave Richardson, the journalist, Jasvinder Sidhu of the , said “no apology” had been tendered.Unless Sidhu and many of his colleagues on the ground were lying, it was blatantly obvious that Kohli did use abusive language. How long would it have taken the media manager to confirm with Kohli whether he had indeed used abusive language? How long would it have taken to ask Sidhu to walk up the stairs and have a brief chat with Kohli? Would it really have hurt the new Indian Test captain to say, “Sorry mate, I shouldn’t have said all that.”Instead, the management sought to “end the matter” with a churlish and inaccurate statement, a grim reminder of the aversion to the Indian media that gained ground under the regime that recently made way. As president, N Srinivasan held the media in contempt and institutionalised this disdain. Players were made off limits; information was at a premium, clarifications sought on developments were rarely forthcoming. An unhealthy mistrust was allowed, in fact encouraged, to fester.Some of this ire of course is well earned. A large section of the Indian media – and, having spent nearly a decade in news television, I have witnessed this first hand – has failed spectacularly in its functioning. Cricket has been reduced to entertainment and the players been subjected to pretty savage vitriol. Over time, an “us against them” environment has taken root. However, by painting the entire media with the same brush, the BCCI has also boxed in those who remain steadfast, devoted reporters of the game. It caused an unfortunate rupture in the relationship.The response of this newly-installed regime, led by president Jagmohan Dalmiya, a man known for a gentler dispensation than his predecessor, and secretary Anurag Thakur, known to engage positively with the media, is a welcome attempt to repair this bond.A veteran on the circuit tells me a story of a time when a cricketer walked up to him and complained bitterly about what had been written about him. “My friend,” the hack told him, “You have the choice not to read what I write, alas I have no choice other than to watch you bat.” He assures me that conversation ended with a smile on both faces. It would be nice to have those days back.

Former Premier League manager Roberto De Zerbi is ready to perform a rescue mission for a Chelsea ace he believes Enzo Maresca is wasting, and could make his move as early as January, per one report.

Chelsea stung at Anfield

Chelsea’s unbeaten run came crashing down at Anfield as they fell to a 2-1 loss to Arne Slot’s Premier League leaders. A penalty from Mo Salah and an effort from Curtis Jones meant that Nicolas Jackson’s fifth goal of the season came in vain, and left the Blues licking their wounds on the way back to west London.

The result leaves the Blues fifth in the Premier League, ending a domestic unbeaten streak that had lasted since their opening day defeat to reigning Champions Manchester City and had seen them score the most goals in the Premier League during that time.

Cole Palmer and Jackson have been key to that, with the English forward grabbing six goals, including four in one half against Brighton, to go with five assists, all of which have come for either Jackson or Noni Madueke.

Chelsea considering move for £112,000-p/w defender amid contract standoff

He would be their best signing under Todd Boehly.

By
Ben Browning

Oct 21, 2024

On the other side, Pedro Neto and Jadon Sancho have been fighting for the final spot in Maresca’s attack, while the likes of Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku have been introduced as substitutes regularly. However, it hasn’t been ideal for everyone.

De Zerbi wants to sign winger Maresca isn't playing

Now, according to a fresh report from Spain, Former Brighton turned Marseille boss De Zerbi is keen to mount a rescue mission for Ukrainian winger Mykhailo Mudryk, who has endured a torrid time at Stamford Bridge. Last month, Maresca told the media that the winger needed to “do better”, refuting suggestions that his confidence was low and his performances were suffering.

“I don’t think it’s a lack of confidence. Misha is Misha”, he explained. “You have to accept the way he is. Hopefully he can get minutes and do better.”

But clearly he hasn’t improved sufficiently, with the 23-year-old not even among the substitutes for the loss to Liverpool and well down the pecking order on the left side of attack, with reports already suggesting he could be cut loose as soon as January.

And as per the report, Marseille see a move for the winger “as a unique opportunity to strengthen their squad”, while De Zerbi, who worked with the winger at Shakhtar, “knows how to use him effectively in his game plan” and “is confident that he can get the most out of his talent”, something that any Chelsea manager including Maresca is yet to do, with Mudryk having picked up more yellow cards than either goals or assists since his arrival.

One potential stumbling block could well be Mudryk’s Chelsea contract, which as it stands sees him take home £100,000 a week until 2031, while no club is likely to match the sort of fee that Chelsea paid to sign the forward.

However, a loan move could be just what he needs to get his career back on track, and in De Zerbi he would have a manager who knows how to get the best out of him.

Mohammed Shami bowls a few really good balls, but they are interspersed with far too many loose ones, an inconsistency that is unacceptable in Test cricket

Sidharth Monga at the MCG27-Dec-20146:01

Agarkar: Don’t know whether India’s bowlers had a plan

The first morning of the Boxing Day Test. India have been a little short in the first half an hour, but it has still been one of their best starts with the ball. They have bowled three maidens at the top, for the first time since Edgbaston 2011. One of those overs got David Warner’s wicket. There hasn’t been a loose ball in the first eight overs. Ishant Sharma is taken off after four overs because he will be replacing Umesh Yadav after his first spell at the other end. The ninth over is a big moment. Australia are 1 for 22. There are two men at the wicket whose batting credentials are being questioned, or at least were being questioned before the series in Chris Rogers’ case. India can expect more wickets if they can keep the pressure on.Enter Mohammed Shami. Perhaps he hasn’t had enough time to mentally prepare because Varun Aaron – who was likely to play this Test – had to fly home for his grandfather’s funeral. The first ball Shami bowls is a half volley. The last ball of his first over is short and wide. Rogers has gone from 9 off 28 to 17 off 34. Forty minutes of pressure built has been released in four. Shami pulls things back a little in his next two overs, conceding just two runs, but then bowls two poor balls in his fourth to go for three boundaries. Even Shane Watson is off and running.Every kind of poor ball has been bowled; yet there is something about Shami. Before lunch he has Watson driving at a wide delivery, but the catch is dropped. Between that drop and the break, Shami drops another delivery short and wide and concedes another boundary.He returns with a good spell after lunch, taking a wicket with his second delivery. Rogers is cross with himself for playing at this, but it is quite a good ball. The seam is proud and upright, the ball is shaping to swing back in, but holds its line after pitching. Rogers plays for the swing, but ends up edging. This wicket, though, has come out of the blue. In his next over Shami bowls two on the pads, but gets away with a leg bye off each.It has still been a good spell, 4-3-2-1, an excellent spell actually. Shami needs to build on it, but when he returns he feeds two freebies down the leg side in his first over. Tea is minutes later, and he comes back with a gentle half volley first ball after the interval. Again he finds a wicket against the run of play, this time through a bad shot by Shaun Marsh, but there is no discipline.In the 63rd over, Shami bowls a gentle short ball into the pads, and is pulled. Three balls later he fields one in his follow through, and in some warped show of aggression he lets rip a throw at the batsman Steven Smith, who is well inside his crease. Smith has already scored 415 runs in the series. He has been sledged with no effect. Shami throws the ball back at him, and guess what, he finds the pad. Down the leg side again from 18 yards this time.Yet, after bowling the most loose balls and the fewest threatening deliveries among the Indian bowlers, Shami has the best figures. He has something going for him, but one impressive spell in a day’s Test cricket, to go with others where he has mixed bad balls with good ones is not good enough. And it has been a day when India have been lucky with R Ashwin bowling 27 tight overs to keep the quicks fresh. Yet the game is in the balance, and they need the fast bowlers to be better on day two.Shami begins day two with a short and wide first ball that goes for three. Later in the over he bowls a soft bouncer to Brad Haddin – part of India’s plan, but they want intensity and pace – and concedes four. This morning, though, is a collective unraveling. Plans, intensity, captaincy and fielding are found wanting. Shami concedes four fours in two overs and is taken off. He comes back and provides three leg-side boundaries in his first two overs. He has gone for 23 boundaries. Ishant and Yadav have conceded 19 together. If Shami has been bowling at 150kmph, he can have some leeway, but he is the slowest of the three.It is difficult to build or maintain pressure while conceding easy runs. MS Dhoni’s explanation for such bowling has always been that these bowlers are used to bowling on Indian pitches, which means they are not patient and look for wicket-taking deliveries too often. How, though, is bowling down leg side when you have slips and gullies waiting going to get you wickets? From the outside, it is not clear what plan Shami is working on.Shami knows a good line and length is necessary to build pressure in Test cricket. He says as much in press conferences. It is certainly not while looking for wickets that he keeps straying to leg or bowling short and wide. The issue has to be concentration or lack of strength and fitness.On the England tour this year, Shami strayed onto the pads 103 times in 96 overs. Ishant provided those freebies 80 times in 115 overs and Bhuvneshwar Kumar 107 times in 173 overs.After an easy debut against West Indies in India, Shami is finding out that the cost of living in Test cricket is pretty high. Take out the two West Indies Tests, and he is averaging 46 with a wicket every 12 overs.Then again, three days ago, Shami brought the house down in the nets. For half an hour on a spicy pitch India’s best batsman in Tests this year, M Vijay, couldn’t middle one ball from Shami. Stumps flew, edges were taken, and pads were hit. Shami always looks good in the nets. He always bowls a few eye-catching deliveries, but one on the pads is never far away.

Mohamed Salah has been told to forget about winning the Ballon d'Or this year as Sam Allardyce is convinced it will go to Vinicius Junior.

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• Salah considered Ballon d'Or contender
• Allardyce convinced it will go to Vini Jr
• Says organisers want to avoid Madrid boycott

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Salah's incredible performances for Premier League leaders Liverpool have seen him touted as a candidate to claim the top prize for 2025.

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• Getty Images Sport
  

  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  However, ex-England manager Allardyce believes France Football, the magazine that organises the Ballon d'Or, will be desperate to appease Real Madrid this year. The Spanish giants boycotted the ceremony last year after being told that Manchester City star Rodri was to be crowned the winner instead of Vinicius, an upset the 70-year-old says they will be desperate to avoid this time around.

• WHAT ALLARDYCE SAID

  Discussing Salah's hopes on the, Allardyce said: "There’s no chance. It’ll be Vinicius Jr because of what Real Madrid did last year. They will be absolutely sh*tting themselves because they won’t turn up again if one of them doesn’t win it, so one of them will win it. You might as well have a bet on it now."

• Getty Images Sport
  

  WHAT NEXT FOR SALAH?

  Salah has an incredible 30 goals and 21 assists from 38 games in all competitions for Liverpool this season and will be out to add more to his record against Newcastle on Wednesday.

A T20 World Cup game against India at the SCG – stages don’t get much bigger than this for the Dutch

Andrew McGlashan26-Oct-2022On Tuesday, Netherlands opener Max O’Dowd tweeted a picture of his diary for October 27. Below three technical notes – head to the ball, play straight, and play late – was written: “18:00 – T20 vs India @ SCG.” The tweet was captioned: What dreams are made of.Tomorrow in Sydney, Netherlands will face India for just the third time in international cricket. The previous meetings were at the 2003 ODI World Cup in Paarl and the same event in 2011 in Delhi.Captain Scott Edwards often wore a wide smile during his pre-match press conference as he answered questions on whether his team could cause an upset, what plans they had for Virat Kohli after his display against Pakistan (“You hope you don’t come up against him on one of those days because he looked pretty hard to stop”) and whether the match was a shop window for players to get an IPL deal. Earlier in the week, Ricky Ponting said he had been impressed with Bas de Leede and there may be BBL interest from Hobart Hurricanes.”It’s huge,” Edwards said. “You always dream of playing World Cups, and the SCG is one of the most famous grounds in the world. And then add in you’re playing against arguably one of the best teams in the world, yes, it’s pretty surreal.”While this is a very significant game for Netherlands, it is perhaps not quite as daunting as it once would have been, given the exposure they have had in the soon-to-be-defunct ODI Super League. It has provided them 24 matches (19 played, 5 to come) including series against West Indies, England and Pakistan in the most recent home summer.Though wins have been hard to come by – just two against Ireland – it was a tournament Edwards cited more than once as having enabled crucial development and exposure for players. It ensured fixtures against teams who would not ordinarily play a side such as Netherlands, especially over three-match series, but it won’t be part of the calendar again, meaning matches against those sides are likely to be thinner on the ground.Netherlands came within nine runs of beating Bangladesh in their opening Super 12s game•ICC/Getty Images

“[It’s] obviously disappointing that the ODI Super League is not going ahead,” Edwards said. “It was a great experience for all of our players. Going forward there’s more teams going to the World Cups in the future, which is great, but you’ve got to qualify for those events, which is always tough.”It’s a bit disappointing, but we’re here now and we get to play another four, five, however many games in the World Cup which we’re looking forward to.”Coming up against these guys, it’s a little bit of an unknown if you only play the bigger nations once every few years. The fact that we got to play 12 to 15 games in the last nine months gives us a lot of confidence. Even for individuals, you look at guys that have performed against these teams. It gives you that sort of acknowledgment that you can perform on a big stage against these bigger teams. We take a lot of confidence from that.”Netherlands will have one survivor from their previous meeting with India, Tom Cooper, and he brings with him an SCG average of 43.66 and two first-class centuries, although he’s had four low scores in this World Cup. “He’s obviously great to have on the squad,” Edwards said. “He hasn’t got the runs this tournament, but hopefully this is the game that he can get going.”After the game is completed, Edwards hopes there is a chance to spend a bit of time with the India players. “Any chance you get to learn from these sorts of players is awesome,” he said. “We saw that at the last World Cup. They’re generally pretty generous with their time.”Netherlands have stunned big opposition at the T20 World Cup before, twice beating England, at Lord’s in 2009 and Chattogram in 2014. Cooper, Logan van Beek and Timm van der Gugten were part of the side in the second of those games.With a little more composure they might have beaten Bangladesh in their opening Super 12s game, but no one expects them to run India close. Yet, as Ireland have just shown against England at the MCG, anything is possible.”I don’t think there’s many people out there expecting us to win,” Edwards said. “For us…we’ll play our best brand of cricket and we’ll do everything we can to win this game. But there’s no pressure on us in that sense.”It’s a match that dreams are made of but maybe, just maybe, it’s one where dreams can come true as well.