IMAGE: AFP

When Pakistan and New Zealand face off in the World Cup on Monday, Dutch all-rounder Bas de Leede predicts that New Zealand seamers Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson will be just as dangerous as Pakistan's renowned pace pair of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf.



In their championship debut against Pakistan on Friday, the Netherlands lost by 81 runs, with Shaheen, Rauf, and Hasan Ali each taking six wickets.


The only second-tier Associate team in the 10-nation World Cup, the Dutch now have to recover against the Kiwis, who kicked off their campaign on Thursday with a crushing nine-wicket thrashing of champions England.


Trent Boult, who is arguably comparable to Shaheen, is there. According to De Leede, Lockie Ferguson is possibly comparable to Haris Rauf.


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So, there are a lot of parallels. We'll apply what we've learned from this game to the next one and try to adjust."


With De Leede (67) and Vikramjit Singh (52) together, the Dutch were well-positioned to chase down a target of 287 to win on Friday when they were standing at 120-2 in the 24th over.


But before being bowled out for 205, they lost three rapid wickets for the addition of just 13 runs, and they never recovered.



Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel both contributed innings of 68 for Pakistan earlier.


De Leede, 23, claimed, "I think those wickets were our downfall."


"We lost Vikram, Teja (Nidamanuru), and Scott Edwards in a relatively short period of time, which put us at a disadvantage.


"It's tough to then go on and put up another partnership and try and win the game."


De Leede was the team's star offensive player, scoring 4-62 points.


He claimed to have looked for advice on how to bat on India's sluggish, spinning tracks.


"I spoke to a couple of people who have experience here and asked them what they think overseas batters needed to do to succeed against spin in India," De Leede said.