India eye Dutch feast en route to quarters

Netherlands face uphill task against in-form hosts.

NEW DEHLI:

India will look to wrap up an easy victory over bottom- placed Netherlands and make sure of their World Cup quarter-final berth.

The hosts are the only team who have yet to taste defeat in their group and that record is unlikely to be broken against the underperforming Dutch who have still to register a win. India are on top of Group B with five points. But thanks to some topsy-turvy results and the tied game against England, they are technically not assured of a place in the last-eight as yet.

A strong performance against the Dutch will not only give them a strong net run-rate but also pave their way to the knockout round. The only weak link for the Indians has been their bowling which has been exposed time and again. The hosts’ frontline bowlers failed to find much success against a spirited Ireland and had it not been for a five-wicket haul by part-time spinner Yuvraj Singh, they could have been in trouble.

Yuvraj’s show with the ball might tempt India captain MS Dhoni to leave out off-colour leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and bring in attacking off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Dhoni has tried to play down the indifferent form of his bowlers.

“We are showing signs of improvement, which is good,” he said, “It’s important to peak at the right time because it’s a long tournament so what we’ve seen is slow and gradual improvement on the bowling side.”

Borren wary of Indian might

The home side are unlikely to be tested against the Netherlands, who ran England close in their opener, thanks to a sparkling 119 from Ryan ten Doeschate, but have since struggled.

The Dutch scored an impressive 292 against England but slumped to a huge 215-run defeat to the West Indies and lost by 231 runs against South Africa. Dutch captain Peter Borren said the match against the hosts would be a tough proposition.

“India are a tough side as their batting line-up has some unbelievable cricketers,” said Borren,

“It’s going to be a real challenge for us to play against them in their home conditions. Hopefully, we can do a little bit better against India than we did against South Africa.”

Waugh backs India

Meanwhile, former Australia Test batsman Mark Waugh said India’s strong batting compensated for their lack of specialist bowling options.

“The batsmen compensate their bowling arsenal and on paper, they possess one of the best batting line-ups in the tournament,” said Waugh.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2011.