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The last time these two teams met in an international tournament, it was the men in orange who secured a famous victory. Can they spring another surprise?


London Start Time: 09:00
Venue and conditions


The Vidharbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur has only hosted two one day internationals, but both were high scoring affairs and scores in excess of 300 will be the norm here. Teams winning the toss in India invariably bat first as the pitches tend to help slow bowlers in the second half of the game, but an extra complication in Nagpur is the possibility of dew later on in the daygame, which will make it harder for the spinners to grip the ball.

Team News
There are no injury problems for the Netherlands and theirs is a pretty settled team. Assuming Graeme Swann has fully recovered from his back problem, England are likely to want to play two spinners here so their decision is whether to go with six batsmen, in which case Ravi Bopara will keep his place, or five, which will enable them to play Tim Bresnan as the third seamer.

Match Odds
If you fancy an upset in this game, you will get plenty of reward for your optimism, with the Netherlands available at around 15.0 But there is precious little evidence that they will be able to repeat their surprise victory over England in the 2009 World Twenty20. They lost all bar one of their warm-up games, which included a thrashing by Sri Lanka and haven't played much fifty over cricket in the last 12 months.

They are handy with the bat and in Ryan ten Doeschate, Alexei Kervezee and Bas Zuiderent they have some big hitters. But their bowling, ten Doeschate aside, is featherweight and they will leak plenty of runs on these flat pitches. England's players may feel weary and jaded after a long winter, but even operating at less than full power, they should have more than enough for the Netherlands.

Top Batsman
Ryan ten Doeschate is in good form at the moment, hitting a powerful 98 not out against Kenya, but the pick for top Netherlands batsman is opener Alexei Kervezee at 5.5. Probably the most talented batsman in the squad, who will look to lay a platform and is capable of compiling a big score.

The decision to place Kevin Pietersen at the top of the order could be a masterstroke for England and it is a role he is clearly relishing. Against the rather tame attack of the Netherlands he has an ideal opportunity to get his World Cup off to a good start and should be backed at 4.0

Featured Market
This is a high scoring ground, the two games here have seen three centuries and five half-centuries so 'Over 82.5' in the Highest Individual Score market seems a good bet at 1.75 or better.

Best Bet: Alexei Kervezee to top score for Netherlands at 5.5


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