HYDERABAD: Netherlands all-rounder Bas de Leede said his team have done their homework to try and counter star Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi in their opening World Cup match in Hyderabad on Friday.
The Dutch will face Shaheen for the first time as the left-armer missed Pakistan’s 3-0 ODI series win against them last year with a knee injury.
De Leede hopes his team can negate the threat of Shaheen more successfully than they fared against Australia’s Mitchell Starc, who took a hat-trick in a rained-off warm-up match in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Shaheen has been a focus point for us in our preparation and also our analysis,” De Leede said on the eve of the match.
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“So, hopefully we’re going to play him better than we did against Starc the other day.”
Shaheen will partner fellow quick Haris Rauf after 20-year-old Naseem Shah, the third member of Pakistan’s feared pace attack, was ruled out of the tournament with a shoulder injury.
De Leede admitted Starc’s gutting of their top order made them cautious.
“Obviously Shaheen and Haris Rauf are two quality pacers, something we don’t face too often is left-arm swing. It was a little bit of a wake-up call for us against Mitchell Starc the other day.”
De Leede said they have a reasonable idea of what to expect from Pakistan.
“Obviously, having played Pakistan last year in Rotterdam in three ODIs, it’ll be nice to sort of be familiar with the team and the players and stuff, having played them before.”
The Netherlands secured their place at the 10-team World Cup with some eye-catching performances at the qualifying event in July.
“I think we’re all just really excited,” said De Leede, who became only the fourth player to score a hundred and take five wickets in the same ODI, doing so against Scotland to seal qualification.
West Indian great Viv Richards, England’s Paul Collingwood and Rohan Mustafa of the United Arab Emirates are the others to achieve the feat.
“Unfortunately, we had the two rained-off warm-up games, which was a shame. But yeah, I think we’ve had the right prep to be ready for tomorrow.”
De Leede backed up Dutch coach Ryan Cook’s claim that the team could defy the odds in India.
“We want to make the semi-finals,” said De Leede, whose father Tim also played for the Netherlands in the 1996, 2003 and 2007 World Cups.
But he knows to do so requires upsetting the bigger teams.
“You know, if we want to get to the semis, we’ve got to win four or five games. So, we’d have to take down one of the big teams.
“But that’s our main target. And if we get there, we play our best cricket. Amazing. But if we play our best cricket and we don’t get there, I reckon we can still be proud of ourselves.”
But reaching the last four will be an incredibly tough ask for the Netherlands, who have managed just two wins across four previous World Cup appearances (1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011).
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