In the end, it came amidst heavy rain showers in Kirtipur but shortly after 3:45pm last Wednesday, it was confirmed that the Netherlands women’s cricket team had qualified for their maiden T20 World Cup in June in England and Wales.

That it was achieved with five straight wins with two games in hand made it all the more impressive.

With wins against Zimbabwe, Scotland, hosts Nepal and Thailand, the Dutch produced masterful displays of bowling to defend totals and top Group B. Needing only to win one of their next three Super Six games, their eight-wicket win against USA in a rain-shortened game confirmed their participation after failing to make it out of the group stages of their previous five qualifying campaigns.

“We came here with the aim to qualify,” a beaming captain Babette de Leede, whose cousin Bas plays for the men’s side, told Dutch News from Kirtipur.

“To get five straight wins to secure World Cup qualification was something we had dreamed of and talked about but the fact that it actually happened was insane. Everything went exactly the way we wanted it to go.”

Moments after De Leede shook hands with the umpires and the USA captain, the squad broke into a frenzied huddle, arms around each other, soaking in the euphoria before sliding over the covers in the rain.

“That was Hannah (Landheer) and myself (laughs). We saw the puddles on the covers and were like, ‘Let’s go!’”

Apart from De Leede, who lives in Cape Town and plays for Western Province, and batter Sterre Kalis, who is contracted with Yorkshire, none of the players are full-time professionals.

“I think that makes it even better,” De Leede said.

“Most of the girls have to work besides training, and they have to study. It’s very challenging to combine everything and also to maintain some sort of social life. We have put in a lot of hard work and made a lot of sacrifices. So it’s even more special for us, especially competing against teams here that do have contracted players.”

Despite suffering losses against Ireland and Bangladesh to round out the tournament, it was a perfect send-off for outgoing head coach Neil McRae, who took charge of the side in January 2024 and will now take up the role of Jersey’s director of cricket.

The Dutch had warmed up with an encouraging third-place finish at the eight-team ICC Emerging Nations Trophy in Bangkok in November though winter training at home proved challenging.

Training

Alongside McRae, it was all hands on deck with the men’s team’s coaches Ryan Cook, Ryan van Niekerk and Heino Kuhn putting the side through their paces.

“We were training in zero degrees and warming up with our cricket gloves on,” De Leede said.

“We obviously couldn’t train on turf pitches, and we couldn’t do any fielding, which was a bit of a limitation. Since we trained a lot over Christmas, not everyone was available so we had boyfriends, dads, brothers to help us out and throw at us as we don’t have any left-arm seamers or spinners. It was quite special.”

June event

The Netherlands will join hosts England, defending champions New Zealand, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Scotland for the showpiece event in June.

“Before qualifying, we wanted to stay grounded and not talk about the World Cup too much but now, we are dreaming of playing at Lord’s or playing against Australia or India or England,” De Leede said.

“We want to actually compete and keep improving the way we have been and cause some serious upsets at the World Cup.”