South Africa vs Netherlands : Battle of Unequals !

Judging by the clinical display one saw from the South Africans in their opening match against the West Indies, the Netherlands may not pose too big a challenge for them, especially after the Orange boys got a Caribbean pasting in their last outing.

However, the Proteas, who are rightly considered one of the fancied teams in the competition, are taking the Dutch seriously and are not expected to take their eye off the ball.

The Netherlands impressed everyone when they gave England an almighty scare in their first match but were very disappointing against the West Indies. Consistency is a major issue with Associate teams and the Dutch will look to have a good outing at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium here on Thursday.

They expect to face a lot of pacy stuff from the likes of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. As they don’t have anyone of comparable speed in their squad, they got the net bowlers to bowl from 17 or 18 yards during their training session.

The South Africans have a few injury concerns with participation of Steyn, middleorder batsman JP Duminy and leg-spinner Imran Tahir under the cloud. But according to the team management, all three are coming on well and are on track to take their places in the playing XI.

Steyn injured himself when he collided with captain Graeme Smith while playing football during a practice session. Duminy had a lower back spasm while Tahir had a throat infection, but they took full part in the training session in the afternoon.

Ryan ten Doeschate had a great game against England and Tom Cooper got some runs against the West Indies, but the Dutch need contributions from others if they are to stretch the South Africans.

They would need some incisive spells to keep the likes of Smith, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers in check. The weather is bit of an xfactor for this game with overcast skies throughout Wednesday and a light drizzle in the morning and early evening. The floodlights had to be put on in the afternoon.

Being a day game, there is expected to be some freshness in the morning and the side bowling first may benefit. The Proteas pace attack may be a handful for the Dutch batsmen if the conditions favour the bowlers. South Africa’s new-found strength – spin – will also test them.

If Thursday’s encounter turns out to be another onesided one, it would give further ammunition to those who believe that the Associate nations don’t have a place at cricket’s showpiece event.