Netherlands v Scotland
Netherlands opener Vikramjit Singh said:
I have got no words, this is the best feeling ever. We worked so hard for this over the last five months wishing to qualify, and finally doing it is unreal.
We have been practicing these moments, practicing these scenarios for the past five months. Finally pulling it over the line, Bas smoked them. It doesn’t get better than this.
We knew it was going to be a bit up and down but us two [him and Max O’Dowd] have had a good tournament so far and we were quite confident we could get off to a good start and we did.
Netherlands all-rounder and Player of the Match Bas de Leede said:
We had a look at the target where we wanted to be at the halfway point and I think from there, there is a thing about talking about it but doing it. Max and Vikram setting up the platform and then the rest of us to come in and finish it off.
It was 10 or 11 an over, so for us it was almost like going into T20 mode. Try and get as many runs as we could every over and see where we ended up.
It is amazing, I can’t describe the feeling. It is going to be one big party tonight I can tell you that.
Scotland captain Richie Berrington said:
“That’s obviously a really tough one to take today. The guys will certainly be hurting right now. I'm extremely proud of the guys for the fight we showed throughout this tournament. Unfortunately, today wasn't quite enough also have to give credit to their guys, the way they played. I think we probably just maybe weren't as disciplined as we have been through the tournament. They ran really well between the wickets. But again, we probably just missed the mark a little bit.
“Obviously, it was a different sort of wicket. As we saw in the first innings, it's been a couple of games played in this surface so it wasn't as much swing today, so it's slightly different tactics. Maybe through that middle stage, we slid away from those plans which just sort of got them back into the game. It's a really tough one but I think looking over the whole tournament, we can be very proud of some of the cricket we've played. And there are certainly some good building blocks, we can keep improving. A lot of different players stepped up at different times throughout this tournament, which has been really exciting to see and some young players coming into the squad as well. They've done really well. So that's good signs for the future."
Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said:
"Little bit loss for words. We thought that the West Indies game was a bit on the heart but that last 20 overs there and what Saqib and Bas did there was next level. It was unbelievable to watch.
This group is just incredible. We are with each other day in, day out in the Netherlands and we put in the hard work. Guys just enjoy everyone’s success. We were confident in the squad that we brought and that has showed, in every game we have had a different match-winner. Even the games we lost, we felt we played really good cricket for the majority of it. it’s a pretty awesome feeling.
It was just some unbelievable batting by Bas and Saqib at the end and we had belief the whole way through.
Cooky brought the batting group together at the halfway point with the big whiteboard and it had 140 at 26 overs and we were maybe 15-20 behind there. We knew what we wanted to do and we just needed a couple of batters to cash in at the back end there.
Build the man a statue. That was an unbelievable game, five wickets and 120-odd there. You would be hard pressed to find a better performance in a long time in ODI cricket. He is an unbelievable player, we have always known that and everyone is aware of that in teams that have come up against us. It is not the first time he has done it, it won’t be the last.”