New York [US], June 8 (ANI): Ahead of an exciting ICC T20 World Cup clash between South Africa and Netherlands, players from both sides shared their excitement for the game between two quality sides, which has become an entertaining rivalry as of late due to Proteas' loss to Netherlands in their two recent World Cup matches.
South Africa will take on Netherlands in their ICC T20 World Cup match at New York on Saturday. While Proteas enjoys a huge advantage over the Netherlands in 10 of their white-ball matches, having won seven of them, they lost to the Dutch side in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia despite being a huge favourite to win the tournament and got eliminated without even reaching semifinals. Next time, a spirited Netherlands team outdid the Proteas in the ICC Cricket World Cup in India last year and registered a 38-run win. Proteas will be aiming to put these two losses aside and produce a scintillating performance while Netherlands will be aiming to make it a hat-trick of wins.
Speaking about the game and their previous encounters, South Africa batter David Miller said to ICC, "It has not gone according to plan. In the last two World Cups, they have beaten us twice. They are always a competitive team. By all means, they have got some great players, and match-winners. But for us, I think it is just about making sure that we put that aside and really just play the game. It is at the end of the day, bat and ball, so looking forward to that good rivalry."
Netherlands all-rounder Logan Van Beek said that if his side manages to make it a hat-trick of wins over South Africa, it could very well establish their supremacy over them. But he also realises that SA is a team that would not want to face such a defeat once again.
"Well, good things come in threes. You know, the first time might seem like a fluke. The second time, again, you are just lucky. But if we do it a third time, that will probably cement maybe we are just got the wood over them. But I know, knowing the South African boys, that they will not be wanting to make that happen. And so it is going to be a fiery competition in York," said Van Beek.
South African pacer Kagiso Rabada expects the match to be against a team "which believes in themselves".
Netherlands opener Max O'Dowd acknowledged that his team will have to play really well to make it a hat-trick of wins.
"Hopefully, it is third time lucky. No one knows, it is cricket. Anyone can beat anyone on their day," said O'Dowd.
Dutch all-rounder Bas de Leede said that it would be tough to beat South Africa again, but Netherlands is going to try its level best.
Squads:
South Africa Squad: Quinton de Kock(w), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram(c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Ryan Rickelton, Bjorn Fortuin, Tabraiz Shamsi
Netherlands Squad: Michael Levitt, Max ODowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards(w/c), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma, Saqib Zulfiqar, Aryan Dutt, Kyle Klein, Wesley Barresi. (ANI)
