19 March,2011 03:03 AM IST | | Agni Pandey
On Wednesday, Ryan ten Doeschate said with determination that he would score a century at the Eden Gardens, which would be his adopted home during the IPL as he would be playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Yesterday, the Dutch all-rounder kept his promise, scoring a brilliant 106 off 108 balls.
Ryan ten Doeschate of the Netherlands
Although, the Netherlands went down to Ireland by six wickets despite posting a formidable total of 306, Ten Doeschate was happy in the belief that his knock would have impressed KKR boss Shah Rukh Khan. "I hope Shah Rukh Khan watched my innings. I don't know whether he watched or not, but if he did watch, I think he will be happy," Ten Doeschate told MiD DAY.
Knight Riders' owner Shah Rukh Khan
The 30-year-old South Africa-born player said it was a dream come true for him to score a ton at the historic venue. "It's the dream of any international cricketer. Eden (Gardens) is special. Obviously this hundred satisfied me a lot," he said.
Ten Doeschate said he
hasn't met the Bollywood Badshah but was aware of his stardom. "He is a superstar. He is very popular in India and my country too. I'm looking forward to meeting him during the IPL," he said.Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Jagmohan Dalmiya had invited Shah Rukh Khan to watch the three World Cup matches at the Eden Gardens, but the actor couldn't be present as he was holidaying in Europe.
But Ten Doeschate, keen to not go back empty handed from Eden, retained a stump as a souvenir. "We lost a match that we could have won. Still, keeping this stump gives a very good feeling," he said.Irish captain William Porterfield had more reasons to be happy. "To end the tournament on a winning note was very good. At least we bagged some more points from this World Cup," he said.
Ireland, who had beaten Pakistan in the last edition of the quadrennial event, lived up to their giant-killers reputation when they shocked England this time.However, the future is bleak for the Irish as the ICC has decided to restrict the flagship event to 10-Test playing nations.
"We are not thinking about Test status. We want to concentrate more on our ODI game. I hope there will be some way for us to qualify for the World Cup," Porterfield said.His Dutch counterpart Peter Borren was disappointed that they couldn't defend a 300-plus target.
"Fielding has been a area of concern for us over the last two years. We are working on it. If our fielding and bowling had been good, the match would have gone our way," he said.
