South Africa ask Netherlands to bat; both teams unchanged

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Both teams won their opening matches of the tournament, and are looking to make it two-in-two

Toss South Africa won the toss and chose to field vs Netherlands

Aiden Markram, the South Africa captain, won the toss and put Netherlands in to bat on a sunny Saturday morning in New York in their T20 World Cup 2024 fixture.

Both teams are unchanged from their respective wins against Sri Lanka and Nepal.

South Africa have four fast bowlers in their line-up, including Marco Jansen as the bowling allrounder. Keshav Maharaj is their only frontline spinner, with Markram providing back-up.

Netherlands have Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma, Logan van Beek and Bas de Leede as the pace-bowling options. Tim Pringle, who was the Player of the Match in their previous game, is their specialist spinner. Netherlands haven’t needed Sybrand Engelbrecht’s services with the ball of late, but their captain Scott Edwards said he was fit to bowl if required.

Markram noted that “the wicket looks different” from the one on which they played Sri Lanka. That match was a low-scoring one, with South Africa bowling Sri Lanka out for 77 and then having a tough time in the chase before getting there in 16.2 overs.

The New York pitch has been the subject of criticism because of the variable bounce on offer. However, pitch No. 1 was used for the first game whereas this game will be played on pitch No. 2.

Netherlands: 1 Max O’Dowd, 2 Michael Levitt, 3 Vikramjit Singh, 4 Scott Edwards (capt, wk), 5 Teja Nidamanuru, 6 Bas de Leede, 7 Sybrand Engelbrecht, 8 Logan van Beek, 9 Tim Pringle, 10 Paul van Meekeren, 11 Vivian Kingma

South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Heinrich Klaasen, 5 David Miller, 6 Tristan Stubbs, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11Ottneil Baartman

Ekanth is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo