RSA vs NL Match Preview
The Royal Netherlands Cricket Board in the Netherlands announced the squad for the remaining matches of the series against South Africa on March 6. These two are the remaining games from the COVID-interrupted series against South Africa in 2021. The Netherlands team will be led by Scott Edwards. he has taken over the captaincy from Pieter Seelaar last year, who was his VOC Rotterdam club mate. But the continuing availability issues facing the Netherlands team will once again deny him the services of all the first-choice alternatives.
The absence of Tim Pringle and Logan van Beek from the side is sure to hurt the team's performance. These two players are participating in another tournament in New Zealand. Several other top Netherlands players such as Colin Ackermann, Bad de Leede, and Brandon Glover will miss the tour as they are being signed by different clubs across the globe. Some good replacements are returning to the side though such as Roelof van der Merwe, and Tom Cooper. Paul van Meekeren and Fred Klaassen are also available for this tour.
With a place in the World Cup to be played later in India on the line, South Africa has named a full-strength side for this series. Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje have been included in the South African team for these two one-day internationals. This is the first time South Africa is facing the Netherlands after losing to them in a T20 game in the 2022 T20 world cup in Australia. The good news for South Africa is their skipper Temba Bavuma has passed the fitness test and has recovered from a hamstring niggle he picked up against West Indies.
Other significant players that are delaying their participation in IPL for this series are, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaases, Marco Jensen, Sisanda Magala, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, and Kagiso Rabada. These players will join the IPL after 3rd April. South Africa is going into this game having won 2 out of their last 4 one-day matches. They drew the series against West indies 1-1 and had to face the same fate against England earlier. They did win their last match against the Windies though.
Weather Report
It is expected that we will get rain and thunder during the game in Benoni. It has been a rainy and long season with the surface being tough to bat on.
Pitch Report
The Willowmoore Park ground in Benoni, South Africa is smallish. It is a great venue for batters that are looking to hit the ball over the top. The quicker bowlers will be getting some help from the track early on. However, all-in-all it is a terrific surface to bat on. The ball will come onto the bat nicely. Spinners on the other hand are unlikely to find any purchase from the track and might not enjoy bowling here with small boundaries. The team batting first on this venue will be looking to put up a score of 275 runs on the board. This will be a good score to defend in these conditions. As the game wears on the wicket will become lower and slower so playing strokes on it will be tough.
Notable stats
South Africa leads the head-to-head between the two sides in the last 5 games.
South Africa leads the head-to-head between the two teams in recent matches 4-0.
Heinrich Klaasen has a terrific batting average.
Heinrich Klaasen has a batting average of 71.16 in his last 9 games for South Africa. He is also scoring these runs with a great strike rate of 123.05.
Team News
Several players are missing from the Netherlands camp for this tour. But South Africa has fielded a full-strength team for this game and the series. There are no injury updates so far.
RSA vs NL Probable 11
RSA Playing 11
- Temba Bavuma (C)
- Quinton de Kock (Wk)
- Reeza Hendricks
- Rassie van der Dussen
- David Miller
- Wayne Parnell
- Aiden Markram
- Kagiso Rabada
- Anrich Nortje
- Lungi Ngidi
- Sisanda Magala
NL Playing 11
- Scott Edwards (C)
- Vikramjit Singh
- Max O'Dowd
- Tom Cooper
- Musa Ahmed
- Wesley Barresi
- Teja Nidamanuru
- Shariz Ahmad
- Paul van Meekeren
- Fred Klaassen
- Roelof van der Merwe
Dream11 Prediction
South Africans have named their full-strength side for this series. They mean business as this is a vital series for them to secure a place in the World Cup main draw. The Netherlands on the other hand is going into the series on the back of the poor form. Their batters especially in their top order have struggled in Zimbabwe. These batters will be up against a powerful fast bowling attack that might even have the overcast conditions working in their favor. The proteas are also playing at home and they have not lost a game against the Netherlands ever. All this makes them an overwhelming favorite to win this match.
Top Picks
Heinrich Klaasen: Klaasen is a top performer in this format for South Africa. In his last 9 games, he has scored 427 runs with an average of 71.16. He has also scored these runs quickly with a strike rate of 123.05.
Anrich Nortje: Anrich Nortje has picked up 8 wickets from his last 6 games with a strike rate of 28.50 and an economy rate of 6.68.
Scott Edwards: The Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards is a crucial component of the Dutch batting order. He has scored 391 runs from his last 10 appearances for the team with an average of 48.87 and with a strike rate of 104.26.
Shariz Ahmed: Shariz Ahmed did well in the recent games for the Netherlands picking up 9 victims from his last 4 matches with an economy rate of 5.15 and strike rate of 23.77.
RSA vs NL Dream11 Team 1
Keeper: Q. de Kock
Batters: D. Miller, T. Cooper, T. Bavuma (C), R. van der Dussen, M O’Dowd
All-rounders: R van der Merwe, A Markram (VC)
Bowlers: P. van Meekeren, K. Rabada, A. Nortje
