To put it simplistically, Chennai has been low and slow, and turns when it wants to. Delhi and Mumbai have been flat and drawing good crowds. Bengaluru's been playing fast and slow depending on who's turned up. Dharamsala has been pretty and Ahmedabad huge. But what about Kolkata, that iconic venue that's finally waking up after ten days of Pujo frenzy around it?
ICC MEN'S ODI WORLD CUP, 2023
Fight for survival in Kolkata's late dash into World Cup
Shakib made a quick trip home to work on his legside game with his childhood coach. © AFP
On first looks, there's a lot unknown going into this fixture. Netherlands and Bangladesh haven't played each other in an ODI in over 13 years. Now when they are finally set to, it's at a venue which hasn't hosted a World Cup game yet in the edition. And on top of that, you don't even know what's left of the two teams, both of whom are coming on the back of heavy defeats.
Both Taskin Ahmed and Scott Edwards were optimistic about the remaining four games in their campaign but didn't really know what to expect from the venue tomorrow. The Netherlands captain hoped for "some supporters" at the Eden Gardens while Taskin expected a lot of Bangladeshis to make their way to Kolkata and cheer with other "bangali bondhu" (Bengali brothers and sisters) from the city in tow.
But look closer and there's a lot that we know about the fixture, and the teams about each other.
Earlier this year, Max O'Dowd, Paul Van Meekeren and Colin Ackerman were among the Dutch cricketers plying their trade in the Bangladesh Premier League. All three of them had less cricket to turn to in the Netherlands after ICC's scrapping of the ODI Super League. So here they were, in conditions as foreign as they can get,
