India Eye Dutch Feast on Way to Quarters

New Delhi: India will look to wrap up a convincing victory over rock-bottom Netherlands in the World Cup on Wednesday and virtually make sure of their quarter-final berth.

India are the only team who have yet to taste defeat in their group and that record is unlikely to be broken against the under-performing Dutch who have still to register a win.

The host nation are on top of Group B with five points. England have as many points but have played a game more and have a worse run rate while West Indies and South Africa have four points each.

But thanks to some topsy-turvy results in the group and the tied game against England, India are technically not assured of a place in the last eight as yet.

A strong performance against the Dutch will not only give India 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.

India's 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.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, however, tried to play down the indifferent form of his bowlers.

"I feel it's important to peak at the right time because it's a long tournament so definitely what we have seen is slow and gradual improvement on the bowling side," he added.

Yuvraj's show with the ball might tempt Dhoni to leave out an off-colour leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and bring in attacking off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Former Australian Test batsman Mark Waugh said India's strong batting compensated for their lack of specialist bowling options.

Writing in the Times of India, he said: "The batsmen compensate their bowling arsenal and on paper, under these conditions, they possess one of the best batting line-ups in the tournament."

"India do have the option of going in with five bowlers in place of the four that they usually prefer. I do not, however, think that is necessarily the right way to go about it because Yuvraj Singh can do a good job as a fifth bowler and bowl his quota," he added.

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.

Skipper Peter Borren said Wednesday's game at New Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla stadium would be a tough proposition.

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

Teams from

India: MS Dhoni (C & WK), Virender Sehwag (VC), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, S Sreesanth

Netherlands: Peter Borren (C), Adeel Raja, Wesley Barresi (WK), Mudassar Bukhari, Atse Buurman (WK), Tom Cooper, Tom de Grooth, Alexei Kervezee, Bradley Kruger, Bernard Loots, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Ryan ten Doeschate, Bas Zuiderent, Berend Westdijk

Stats & trivia

• In the only match played between the teams, India won by 68 runs at Paarl in 2003.
• India have had a comfortable opening win against Bangladesh, followed by a pulsating high scoring tie with England and a hard fought win against Ireland.
• The contest against Netherlands will allow them to get rid of any chinks in their armour before the highly-anticipated showdown against South Africa on Saturday.
• Netherlands have had three tough outings against test playing nations -- England, West Indies, South Africa
• Dutch racked up 292 runs in a losing cause against England before going down to West Indies and South Africa by 215 and 231 runs respectively.
• All seven Indian batsmen have scored some runs this World Cup with Virender Sehwag (215 runs), Sachin Tendulkar (186 runs) and Virat Kohli (142 runs) in the top 11. Sehwag (127) and Pathan (124) are the third and fourth in the list of those with the best strike rates (minimum 30 balls faced).
• For Netherlands, Ryan ten Doeschate features in the top 15 highest scorers with 137 runs so far, including 119 against England, and in the top 20 wicket takers so far with six victims. Netherlands have no bowler in the Top 50, in terms of best economy rates.

Head-to-head

• Total played 1
• India won 1
• Netherlands won 0
• Only meeting India won by 68 runs in WC 2003 at Paarl

Match facts
Wednesday March 9, 2011 (day/night)
Start time 14:30 local (09:00 GMT)