Humiliated by West Indies in their previous match, Netherlands captain Peter Borren today promised to raise the bar and play some "outstanding cricket" when they meet world number two South Africa in a Group B World Cup match here tomorrow.
For the Netherlands, it would take a massive effort to register a win especially after their dismal show against the Calypso Charmers in New Delhi, where they lost by 215 runs after failing to make a mark in any department of the game.
"We understand for our level and for our own standards, it wasn't good enough. We want to rectify that tomorrow by playing outstanding cricket. We have shown before also that we have the potential and the talent to do well," Borren told reporters at the PCA grounds here after the team had an extended training session.
Admitting that the performance of the associate nations, playing in this World Cup, had so far not been up to the mark, the skipper attributed it to the lack of regular ODI action against top Test playing nations.
"We are realistic enough to know that you can't put up best performances every day at this level. We don't play often at this level, we played fantastic cricket against England and played poorly against the West Indies," he said adding that even if regular teams would meet each other after a gap of four years, they were bound to struggle.
"So, it's not easy, we have to play to our own standards and try to achieve our own goals," he said. South Africa and Netherlands have met twice in the World Cup before with the latter losing on both the occasion, a 160-run defeat at Rawalpindi in 1996 and a 221-run loss at St Kitts in 2007.
Netherlands have managed only one win in the last six ODIs it has played. Borren said the team has got more potential than what it showed against the West Indies and are looking forward to put up a good show against the Proteas.
"We didn't prepare any differently, we are mentally prepared. Those are the facts that we lost to the team that lost heavily to the South Africans. In tomorrow's game, we are going with our own goals," he said.
The skipper said they need to learn from the quick turnaround which has happened in their case, one having a close game against England and other disappointing one against the West Indies.
The "Oranje brigade" has been struggling with poor bowling from the very first game of the tournament and Borren said it was an area of concern for the team.
