Cricket expert Ayaz Memon sees the match as an opportunity for the Dutch to gain brownie points with their performance
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00:00 Hi, I'm Ayaaz Mehmed with the World Cup Update. It's the last match of the League stage.
00:04 It's India vs Netherlands. India obviously are in the semi-final.
00:08 They'll be playing New Zealand, remember, in the first semi-final.
00:12 And Netherlands, well, you know, they've had a, you know, something to remember from this campaign.
00:18 They haven't fared as well as Afghanistan, but they did beat South Africa once,
00:23 which is very creditable considering that they were not expected to win any match.
00:28 I think this match is really for Netherlands to grab as much as they can in terms of brownie points,
00:35 in terms of performances, in terms of accolades and where India is concerned.
00:38 Of course, they need to keep that winning momentum going.
00:42 You can't lull yourself into overconfidence and say, "Oh, this is Netherlands.
00:46 We can, you know, wipe the slate clean whenever and however we like."
00:51 It may be possible. That's obviously how the, you know, the prospects of this match pan out on paper.
00:58 India are so overwhelmingly superior and going by the run of play so far in this tournament,
01:04 they should make, they should win this easily.
01:07 But there's always a little scope to fine-tune, do a little better.
01:11 You know, so this is, I don't see India making any changes.
01:16 There was this case perhaps or as propagated by some that maybe it's time to play some of the players who are on the bench.
01:25 Shahid Gul Thakur, Ravi Ashwin, maybe Ishan Kishan.
01:29 But I think there's no need really. I mean, there's no great workload now on the players.
01:33 There's no injury problem, hopefully, where you have to take care of a Shammi or a Siraj or a Bumrah or anybody else for that matter.
01:41 Any of the batters, Shreya Sair.
01:43 If the team which is going to be in the knockout is more or less decided,
01:48 then just one match before the knockout stage, there's no need to tinker. That's my opinion.
01:53 So, I see India playing with the same 11 that they did in the previous matches, few matches at least.
02:00 And then going all out to grab a win in as authoritative a fashion as they've been doing so far.
02:07 It's up to Netherlands, as I mentioned earlier, to get whatever they can absorb.
02:13 Of course, from seeing a fantastic team in action to getting some grounding points for themselves, which will help them in the future.
02:20 [MUSIC]