South Africa hope to avoid male counterparts' fate

South Africa's men's team have had trouble beating the Netherlands when it matters. The women's sides, not so much.

Cricketminded South Africans still groan at mentions of the Adelaide awfulness in the 2022 T20 World Cup, when Temba Bavuma's side found a way to lose to the Dutch minnows. They also don't like to be reminded of the Dharamsala disaster in the 2023 ODI World Cup, when South Africa went down to the Netherlands despite having thrashed mighty Australia five days previously.

Contrast that with the female side of the equation. These teams have met eight times all told across both white-ball codes, and South Africa have won every match. Thursday's game in Bristol will be their first clash at a T20 World Cup; it's also the Netherlands' first trip to the tournament. The sides have played each other in the ODI version only once.

So the smart and even the not so smart money will be on a resounding South Africa victory, especially coming four days after their impressive win over India at Old Trafford. Not so fast.

If the men can lose their way against the Dutch after putting up 311/7 against the Aussies and bowling them out for 177 at that 2023 World Cup, what's to say the women aren't capable of something similar even after thumping India?

That's unlikely. Precisely because they are not the men's team. Which is not to argue the Netherlands cannot win on Thursday. They could. That said, they shouldn't expect their opponents to melt into a puddle under pressure, like South Africa's men have tended to do in global tournaments.

Laura Wolvaardt's team are capable of playing poorly, like they did in Manchester on June 13 – when Australia shot them out for 107 and hammered them by 65 runs. And of making life unnecessarily difficult for themselves – which happened when they dwindled to eight down before scraping together the modest 127 they needed to beat Pakistan at Edgbaston last Wednesday.

But they don't inexplicably play below their own levels like the men are wont to do. They came close to that against Australia in this tournament, but it's difficult to remember a previous case. With the men, you only have to go back to their shocking failure to launch in their T20 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand at Eden Gardens in March.

So here's a thought that will strike a chord with Dutch as well as South Africa supporters: aside from their ODI and T20 World Cup defeats by the men in orange, the only match of the other nine between the teams the Proteas didn't win was an ODI washout. That includes five World Cup encounters in both formats, most recently at the 2024 T20 version.

Like South Africa's women, the men were also successful against the Netherlands. Until they weren't.

When: Thursday, June 25, 2026, 6.30pm local/7.30pm SA time/11pm IST

Where: County Ground, Bristol

What to expect: With a forecast for 38 degrees Celsius and a real-feel of 40, the heat will be a major factor. That might seem an advantage for the Africans over their European opponents, but it's likely to affect all involved. All three games played here in the tournament have been won chasing, so fielding first looks the way to go.

Netherlands: The Dutch have lost all three of their games and are at the bottom of their group with two matches to play. So they might as well give the only players in their squad who haven't appeared in all of their matches – middle order batter Sanya Khurana and seamer Myrthe van den Raad – a whirl.

Possible XI: Heather Siegers, Phebe Molkenboer, Babette de Leede (capt), Sterre Kalis, Robine Rijke, Sanya Khurana, Iris Zwilling, Myrthe van den Raad, Caroline de Lange, Silver Siegers, Isabel van der Woning.

South Africa: Now that the South Africans have found their feet by convincingly beating India, it would be unwise to change the XI.

Possible XI: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Tazmin Brits, Annerie Dercksen, Marizanne Kapp, Nadine de Klerk, Chloe Tryon, Dane van Niekerk, Sinalo Jafta, Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba.

• Despite the teams' differing experiences in the tournament, the Netherlands' leading batter, Babette de Leede, has scored more runs than her South African counterpart, Marizanne Kapp.
• Kapp is also South Africa's top wicket-taker with six strikes, as many as Caroline de Lange, the Dutch's most successful bowler at this event.
• Only Sri Lanka have been dismissed in Bristol during this World Cup, but they also own the highest total scored there.

"We hope we can put more pieces of our game together… do the good things that we're doing for longer to put on a performance against South Africa that pushes them close. And we're still here fighting to try and win our first T20 World Cup match." – Neil McRae says the Dutch aren't done.

"When you rock up at a World Cup it takes one player to perform on the day and you can take the game away from a team." – Marizanne Kapp will hope her words don't come true the wrong way round for South Africa.