Match 16 of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will take place between the Netherlands and Aiden Markram-led South Africa at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Saturday at 8 PM IST.
What has happened so far?
The Scott Edwards-led side defeated Sri Lanka in their first warm-up fixture by a margin of 20 runs while their second warm-up fixture against Canada was washed out without a ball being bowled at the Grand Prarie Stadium in Dallas.
The Dutch then started their 2024 ICC T20 World Cup campaign with a convincing win by six wickets over Nepal and are currently in second place on the points table with two points.
Nepal bravely defended their total of 106 runs but their poor efforts in the field proved costly as opener Max O’Dowd’s undefeated innings of 54 runs helped the Netherlands bag two crucial points ahead of this upcoming match.
On the other hand, the Proteas decided to rest their key players after the IPL playoffs and fielded a second-string side against West Indies in a three-match T20I series which was clean-swept by the Caribbean side.
A full-strength South Africa side completely outplayed Sri Lanka with their bowling taking full advantage of a wicket that was challenging to bat on, bowling out Sri Lanka for 77 runs.
After taking six wickets between them, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje’s speed proved too much for their opponents to handle, and the Proteas skillfully handled any obstacles on the pitch to accomplish their victory target in 16.2 overs, currently sitting atop the group standings courtesy of a superior net run rate.
Head to Head Record
The Netherlands and South Africa have played each other in two T20 matches. In these two matches, both teams won a game each.
The last time in the shortest format of the game when these two teams faced off, the Edwards-led side registered a famous victory of 13 runs and knocked out the Proteas from the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Key Players
Bas de Leede (Netherlands): Capable of scoring big runs and batting higher up the order, Bas de Leede is an important all-round player for the Netherlands. His bowling abilities are vital, frequently turning him into a match-winning player for the Netherlands.
In the match against Nepal, de Leede bowled brilliantly taking two wickets while giving away only 22 runs during his spell and also contributed 11 runs with the bat to seal the victory for his side.
Anrich Nortje (South Africa): The bowling spearhead of South Africa, Anrich Nortje has taken 42 wickets with an economy rate of 7.22 in 32 T20Is. The speedster missed nearly nine months of international action due to a stress fracture and scripted a fairytale comeback as he delivered his best performance against Sri Lanka since his return.
Nortje returned with a bang against Sri Lanka
Recording figures of 4/7 in his allotted quota of four overs, the 30-year old rocked the Lankan Lions’ batting core dismissing Kusal Mendis, Kamindu Mendis, Charith Asalanka, and Angelo Mathews.
Predicted XIs
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram © , Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ottneil Baartman
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Bas de Leede, Scott Edwards © (wk), Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
Prediction
Both teams will be high on confidence after having won their respective tournament openers and both sides will be hoping to continue their great momentum. It will always be an exciting contest to watch out for when the Netherlands take on South Africa adding another exciting chapter of their rivalry on Saturday night.