The third set of matches at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 concludes in Dharamsala on Tuesday and two sides who have made very different starts to the tournament clash when South Africa go up against the Netherlands.
This match might come with a tinge of revenge for South Africa after it was the Netherlands who denied them a chance to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup last season. The minnows would love a similar result here.
South Africa
I’m not sure how much of a surprise it is but South Africa have made a wonderful start to their campaign in this tournament. They have won both of their matches, against fair opposition in Sri Lanka and Australia even if both had their troubles before and during those encounters. It isn’t necessarily that they won both of those games but more the manner in which they won them, where they showed an air of confidence and at times some real dominance.
There is always a feeling in the back of the mind that South Africa will slip up or choke when it is unexpected at some point in these major tournaments but at present there doesn’t appear to be any signs of it happening and that is a positive. If there is one thing which might catch them out when it comes to taking on the real big guns in this tournament it could be that they lack some of the batting depth that other teams have, but that is unlikely to be an issue here.
Netherlands
The Netherlands have started their campaign with two defeats from their only two matches so far. That will have disappointed them but what would have pleased them is that at certain points in both games they were competitive and well in touch with their opponent but just lacked the nous or the composure to get themselves over the line and paid the price. They are up against more familiar foes in this match so maybe that will help them keep their cool.
The one thing we would expect to see more of from the Netherlands is runs right from the top of the order. I think they are always going to be strained with the ball in these conditions, understandably so when you consider where they play their home cricket and how infrequently they are exposed to pitches like these, but in the main they are a strong batting unit. We’ve not yet seen a complete batting effort from them and they will hope that comes here.
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Team News
South Africa have no burning need to change a winning side but if they would prefer the extra seamer then Gerald Coetzee could return potentially in place of Keshav Maharaj with Tabraiz Shamsi’s mystery more likely to be successful.
The Netherlands are waiting to see whether Logan van Beek will be fit to return to the side. If he is then Ryan Klein would probably be the man to make way. If he isn’t then the Dutch could go into battle unchanged.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets for this match. The first of them is for Bas de Leede to cover a performance target of 40.5pts. He has been very good in this tournament so far. He had an exceptional opening game against Pakistan where he took four wickets and then scored 67 with the bat. He only delivered an average game against New Zealand with one wicket and 18 runs but two catches saw him reach 58 points in that one too. He is a real class act. He is the one associate nation player who could feasibly play at the very highest level and I think this line is well within his reach whether he gets the points with the bat, the ball, in the field or a combination of all three.
The other bet that I like in this match is for Tabraiz Shamsi to be the leading South Africa wicket taker. Often when associate teams take on the bigger nations they are fine against the seam bowlers and usually ok against the finger spinners but the mystery spinners prove more difficult. Mitchell Santner isn’t a mystery spinner by trade but he is a difficult spinner to face and he took five wickets against the Dutch in their last match. Shamsi bowled well against Australia and is a left arm wrist spinner, the like of which the Netherlands won’t have faced too often in the past so I can see them having a few issues with him. There hasn’t been much in this Dharamsala wicket for the pace bowlers so you would imagine the South African spinners will be the ones to do the damage and at 10/3 I’ll pay to see if Shamsi is the leading bowler for the favourites here.
Tips
Back B.de Leede’s Performance – Over 40.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back T.Shamsi Top South Africa Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 4.33 with Betfair
