SA look to put the squeeze on Oranje

Deepankar Sharda

Dharamsala, October 16

Cricket pundits may have predicted the South Africa-Netherlands World Cup tie to be a one-sided affair, but the Proteas are not taking the Dutch lightly — especially after having faced a 13-run defeat at last year’s T20 World Cup.

South Africa won both their matches — against Sri Lanka and Australia — comfortably. On other hand, Netherlands are looking for their first win of the tournament, having lost to Pakistan and New Zealand.

While the stats are favouring South Africa, the cold conditions brought about by the rain have lifted the Dutch morale. “It’s cold! It will be nice to play here. We have had a good time here, and have already adapted to the weather. The boys are ready to play is such favourable conditions,” said Netherlands coach Ryan Cook.

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma insisted his team cannot afford to be “arrogant”. “We definitely won’t be taking them lightly,” said Bavuma. “We played them in South Africa and our victories there were emphatic. I think in terms of the confidence and belief within the team without us being arrogant or loud about it I think it’s still up there. We’ll be coming into the game with the same mindset that we had against Sri Lanka and Australia,” he added.

South Africa’s batting has been top-class so far, with Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram scoring centuries to help the team post a record 428 against Sri Lanka. De Kock made another century in the 134-run mauling of the misfiring Australian team.

Patchy outfield

After the outfield here was described as “poor” by England skipper Jos Buttler, the South African captain termed it “patchy” but fine to play on. “I think the field is a bit patchy. We did have a fielding practice last night and to be honest it didn’t play as bad as it really looked,” said Bavuma.