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Netherlands opener Max O'Dowd has been subjected to online abuse after he dropped the catch of Pakistan all-rounder Faheem Ashraf on the opening day of T20 World Cup 2026. Ahead of their game against Namibia, O’Dowd said that it felt that Indian fans are angrier at him for dropping the catch than Dutch supporters.
“Some of the comments were quite harsh, something that should never be said to anyone,” O’Dowd told The Indian Express on February 9.
“It seems that Indian fans were angrier with me than the Dutch supporters,” he added.
In the last two overs, Pakistan needed 29 runs to win. Ashraf hit the first ball of the penultimate over for a six. On the next delivery, Ashraf went for another big hit but could not get hold of the full-toss outside off stump. At long-on, O'Dowd got two hands to it but could not complete the catch.
Ashraf went on to hit two sixes and a four in the remaining four balls of the over. In the final over, Pakistan needed five runs and they got over the line with three balls to spare. After the narrow defeat, the Dutch players had a discussion on what went wrong in the match.
“We had a chat about things after the game, not just that catch. We could have done a lot of things better. We thought we were a bit short with the bat as well,” O’Dowd said.
No additional catching practice
O'Dowd got support from his teammate, all-rounder Colin Ackermann.
“Max is good. There were obviously many other moments in the game where we could have done better. If we look at the last five overs of our batting, if we had added another 15–20 runs, that could have been the difference. There are 240 moments in a T20 game, so we need to be better in those other moments as well,” Ackermann said.
O'Dowd also revealed that there was no need for an additional practice as he dropped a catch he has taken plenty of times.
“I have taken such catches a thousand times. It’s just that I dropped that one and we lost the match,” O’Dowd said. “So, no additional practice.”
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