Predicted PXI | Pitch & Weather Conditions | India vs Netherlands Match Preview:
The T20 world cup so far has been highly unanticipated and unexpected. Only a week into the World cup and the cricket world has witnessed some of the most thrilling encounters between teams. From dark horses causing upsets for the favourites to final ball squeakers, this World Cup has displayed it all so far.
Sydney is all set to stage two matches on Thursday. The Indian team and Netherlands team will meet after the South Africa vs Bangladesh fixture in the same ground.
Netherlands has played one match of the tournament until now. Although they ended up losing against the Bangladesh team by 9 runs in their opening match, the Dutch made sure to put up an interesting show and did their utmost to clinch the victory from Bangladesh. Currently, Netherlands stand at the 6th and the last position in the table.
The Indian team had an amazing game against Pakistan on Sunday, where they managed a last ball triumph over their arch-rivals. The victory has, ofcourse, bolstered the confidence of men in blue a thousandfold. However, such a narrow escape from losing to Pakistan failed to elevate the NRR of India considerably. Owing to which, India sits as second position in the table below Bangladesh. Their outing against Netherlands can help them reach the top of the table if they manage to outclass the Dutch on thursday.
HEAD TO HEAD:
India and Netherlands have never encountered each other in a T20I match. If anything, this makes this match a little more interesting.
WEATHER AND PITCH REPORT:
Weather is expected to remain free of rain, as the chance of rain is only 40% in Sydney on 26th of October. The day is forecasted to be sunny in the morning and the sky will be overcast in the afternoon.
With no rain to play spoilsport, an uncurtailed match will be underway in the SCG.
The pitch of Sydney is paradise for batters as it provides a flat track to play shots on. The batsmen, however, should try to firm their feets until the ball gets old and start attacking afterwards. Also, the boundaries are bigger than many other grounds in Australia, so batsmen will have to be careful when smashing the ball up in the air.
The SCG is one of the few venues down under, where tweakers can flaunt their skills just as well as pacers, since it allows the ball to spin after the initial stage of the game when the surface wears out.
PLAYING XI (PROBABLE):
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami.
Netherlands: Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Bas de Leede, Tom Cooper, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Tim Pringle, Roelof van der Merwe, Timm van der Gugten, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren.
PREDICTION:
The Netherlands is currently in spectacular form. Although, the Dutch players could not help their team home against Bangladesh but the way they played had a class of its own. Players like Colin Ackermann, Paul van Meekeren and Fred Klaassen will play their best cricket to make sure they come out victorious against India.
However, with the increase in chances of Pakistan and South Africa reaching the semi finals, India’s team will be more pertinacious to win this match against Netherlands.
Also, the batting lineup of India is extraordinarily indestructible as can be seen from the recent clash between Pakistan and India. Pakistani pacers, who are regarded as the best in the world, struggled to dismiss Virat Kohli. Unless the Dutch manage to send off the top order of India early, their chances to survive against this raging beast are very few.
WHERE TO WATCH:
TV Broadcast: Star Sports, Fox Sports 501 & Channel 9 HD, 9GemHD.
PTV Sports and A Sports will broadcast the match on television for viewers in Pakistan.
Digital Broadcast: Sky GO, Sky Sports app, Daraz app, AryZap, Tapmad, Yupp TV.