SOUTH Africa are brace for a third consecutive World Cup encounter against the Netherlands on Saturday, having met them two years ago in the T20 World Cup in Adelaide and at Dharamsala during the ODI World Cup last summer.
In both encounters, the Proteas ended up on the losing side, falling short by 13 and 38 runs, respectively.
Losing to the Netherlands, a minnow team, at a World Cup is embarrassing enough. However, the fact that the Dutch team are almost always filled with former Proteas players and South African-born players rubs salt into the wound.
The two sides are now set to meet at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Saturday (4.30pm start, SA time), in the second round of the group stage fixtures.
And despite their previous World Cup encounters, New York might be a different ball game altogether.
We looked at two factors that may work in South Africa’s favour in the Big Apple…
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Conditions
The drop-in pitch in New York copped a lot of criticism following the low-scoring affair between South Africa and Sri Lanka earlier this week, and was deemed “unfit for T20 cricket” by pundits and fans alike.
However, it was a wicket that the Proteas quicks thrived on as they bundled out a formidable Sri Lanka side for 77 inside 20 overs.
The South Africans lost four wickets during their chase, with Quinton de Kock top-scoring with 20.
And although it was not an ideal result, they’ve had a taste of the surface, while the Netherlands only have video footage and stats to help them in their preparation.
With this in mind, South Africa should dictate the terms, regardless of the coin toss.
Dutch missing players
The Netherlands are missing a number of key players at the T20 World Cup, who are fulfilling their contractual duties in the UK.
Though the Dutch are not short of slow left-arm spinners in the squad, none of them are of the calibre of Roelof van der Merwe, who is missing the World Cup due to his contract with English county Somerset.
Equally, few Dutch top-order batters could match the skills of Colin Ackermann, who is currently playing for Durham in the Vitality Blast T20 competition.
The Netherlands will also miss the inside information that they possess about the current Proteas team, having played for South Africa at different levels in the past. Will this play a role on Saturday?
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Squads for New York
South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Ottniel Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Anrich Nortjé, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs.
The Netherlands: Scott Edwards (captain), Max O’Dowd, Vikram Singh, Michael Levitt, Wesley Barresi, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Teja Nidamanuru, Bas de Leede, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Aryan Dutt, Daniel Doram, Frederick Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma.