ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 24, 2022

Colin Ackermann

Bellerive Oval

Netherlands

Post Match Media Conference

Bangladesh 144/8, Netherlands 135

Q. Colin, chasing 140, you saw your chances in the innings break?

COLIN ACKERMANN: Yeah, definitely. I think in these conditions 140 was very chasable. We definitely would have taken that at the start of the game, especially the fact that it greased up, and with the rain about, it made it easier to bat on. Especially coming from Geelong, where it was a bit of a tricky wicket and a slight outfield, tonight was more batter friendly than what we'd been accustomed to.

Q. Do you think the first two balls actually happened in the chase?

COLIN ACKERMANN: Look, if you lose two wickets early, it is always difficult. We know when you chase, you need a solid foundation to bowl from, and it did knock us back a bit. We bat very deep in this team. It showed with Paul van Meekeren coming in towards the back end and slinging boundaries. We back ourselves in any situation.

Q. I saw you sticking on the wicket for so long. What was your plan, to stick to the last and take their team to the end?

COLIN ACKERMANN: Yeah, I think in a chase like this, losing early wickets you needed to try and bat deep, which wasn't easy because Bangladesh bowled pretty well up front, and they didn't give us many scoring opportunities. But we knew that the pace of the wicket was good so we could always score towards the back end, and the fact we're that deep definitely put us in a good position.

Q. At the end of the match it was a close game, nine runs. You lost, but you are satisfied with the fight back or upset?

COLIN ACKERMANN: We're upset, definitely. We felt like coming into this game that it was going to be a good match, and we felt like we had the skills and the capabilities to definitely beat Bangladesh today, and it showed in our performance. It was a closely contested match, but we needed those partnerships at the start of the innings to really solidify our chase, and it just didn't happen today, unfortunately.

Q. Given the narrow margin of defeat, how do you look back on those two run-outs?

COLIN ACKERMANN: Yeah, the first one I slipped. Maxy kind of admitted there was never two there.

It's never ideal having run-outs. It was a bit chaotic, so we needed to calm things down a bit. But yeah, that was obviously two big batters for us. Maxy is fantastic form, and Coops is raring to go, so those were two big wickets for us that we lost.

Q. Just looking at the tournament as a whole, obviously there was last night's game. They lost early wickets, as well. You guys arguably could have been in position to win the game minus the run-outs. Everyone always talks about three wickets in the powerplay, you're in a losing position. This tournament is in that narrative a little bit do you think?

COLIN ACKERMANN: Yeah, look, you can lose three wickets in the powerplay and still win the game. I firmly believe that. Especially looking at we batted way down, like I said earlier. We weren't chasing 160, 170. 140 was definitely a chasable score on that pitch in these conditions.

It just wasn't our night tonight. Taskin bowled well up front to get those wickets, so credit to him, as well.

Q. How was the Bangladeshi fast bowling unit?

COLIN ACKERMANN: The wicket was quite skiddy tonight. They bowled pretty good areas up front. Obviously we couldn't really attack the powerplay because we had lost two those wickets in the first over, so we couldn't really play our natural game in the powerplay. We kind of had to try and take it deep and form a partnership and try and take it deep.

Q. Colin, how do you evaluate Taskin's bowling today?

COLIN ACKERMANN: Yeah, I think he ran in with good aggression. Up front they knew that 140 was a very chasable target, I believe, and they needed to try and get wickets up front. He bowled pretty good areas, nicking off Vikram Singh and Bas de Leede. How do we change that? I don't know. It was maybe a bit loose from Vikky up front if anything, but it was a good ball, as well. If we don't lose those two wickets early, it's a completely different game.

Q. I wondered if the second over that you guys bowled in your innings was a matchup thing because you picked two specialists spinners, it was overcast, the ball was swinging a bit, and you bowled the second over. I just wonder what that was about basically.

COLIN ACKERMANN: Yeah, obviously matchups are a big thing nowadays. We kind of identified the fact that there were two left-handers and I turn the ball away from them. Also after facing an over of pace, they needed to reevaluate facing the spin. There might be a bit more hold, it might skid. Batting six overs of pace in the powerplay is quite tough because you can't change the pace too much. So it was definitely a matchup from our part.

Q. Given the other teams in the group, would you say that today was a huge opportunity missed in terms of sort of picking up two points?

COLIN ACKERMANN: Yeah, definitely. We kind of sat down before the game today and identified this game as a game that we can definitely win. We know that we've got the skills and capabilities in this team to beat full member nations. We felt like we could definitely do it. It was a tightly contested match today. Yeah, I suppose it's a missed opportunity from our side today.