De Leede hopes Dutch can dominate Pakistan quickly Shaheen

De Leede hopes his team can nullify Shaheen’s threat more successfully than against Australia’s Mitchell Starc, who scored a hat-trick in a rain-soaked warm-up match in Thiruvananthapuram.

“Shaheen has been a focal point for us in our preparation and also in our analysis,” De Leede said before the match.

“So hopefully we’re going to play against him better than we did against Starc the other day.”

Shaheen will partner fellow fast Haris Rauf after 20-year-old Naseem Shah, the third member of Pakistan’s feared attack, was ruled out of the tournament with a shoulder injury.

De Leede admitted that Starc’s destruction of their top order made them cautious.

“Obviously Shaheen and Haris Rauf are two quality pacers, something we don’t face very often is left-arm movement. It was a bit of a wake-up call for us against Mitchell Starc the other day.”

De Leede said they have a reasonable idea of ​​what to expect from Pakistan.

“Obviously, having played against Pakistan last year in Rotterdam in three ODIs, it will be good to be familiar with the team, the players and all that, having played against them before.”

The Netherlands secured their place in the 10-team World Cup with some eye-catching performances in the qualifying event in July.

“I think we’re all very excited,” said De Leede, who became only the fourth player to score a hundred and take five wickets in the same ODI, doing so against Scotland to seal qualification.

West Indies great Viv Richards, England’s Paul Collingwood and Rohan Mustafa of the United Arab Emirates are the others who achieved the feat.

“Unfortunately, we had both warm-up games due to rain, which was a shame. But yeah, I think we’ve had the right preparation to be ready for tomorrow.”

De Leede backed Dutch coach Ryan Cook’s claim that the team could defy the odds in India.

“We want to get to the semi-finals,” said De Leede, whose father Tim also played for the Netherlands at the 1996, 2003 and 2007 World Cups.

But he knows that doing so requires upsetting the bigger teams.

“You know, if we want to get to the semifinals, we have to win four or five games. So, we would have to beat one of the big teams.

“But that’s our main goal. And if we achieve that, we’ll play our best cricket. Unbelievable. But if we play our best cricket and we don’t get there, I think we can still be proud of ourselves.”

But reaching the semi-finals will be an incredibly difficult task for the Netherlands, who have only managed two wins in their four previous World Cup appearances (1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011).