‘The plan is to go home’

Former Bangladesh Under-19 pacer Mohammad Saifuddin and fast bowler Abul Hasan will fly out to Colombo tomorrow to take part in the one-day warm-up game on March 22 ahead of the limited-overs leg of Bangladesh’s tour of Sri Lanka, which starts with the first ODI on March 25 in Dambulla.

The two will be sent to Colombo for experience with the national team. Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mahmud informed of this development during the fourth day of the second Test between the teams at the P Sara Oval in Colombo today.

Saifuddin, who played in Bangladesh’s run to the semifinals of the Under-19 World Cup early last year, will be part of the senior group for the first time, while Abul -- who in 2012 against the West Indies became the first cricketer to hit a century from number 10 on debut – has been out of national reckoning since he played in an ODI against Pakistan in April 2015.

Both players will fly back to Dhaka on March 23, with Saifuddin expected to take part in the ACC Emerging Cup. The 16-member Bangladesh ODI squad will fly out to Colombo today.

Dutch all-rounder Bas de Leede believes New Zealand seamers Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson will pose the same dangers as Pakistan's vaunted pace duo Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf when they meet in the World Cup on Monday.

The Netherlands slipped to an 81-run defeat to Pakistan in their championship opener on Friday with Shaheen, Rauf and Hasan Ali claiming six wickets between them.

Now the Dutch, the only second-tier Associate team at the 10-nation World Cup, must bounce back against the Kiwis who started their campaign with a thumping nine-wicket rout of champions England on Thursday.

"There's Trent Boult, who is similar to Shaheen probably. Lockie Ferguson probably similar to Haris Rauf," said De Leede.

"So, a lot of similarities. We'll take our learnings from this game and then try and adapt for the next game."

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

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

Pakistan had earlier been indebted to innings of 68 each from Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan.

"I think it was those wickets that were our downfall," said 23-year-old De Leede.

"We lost Vikram, then Teja (Nidamanuru), then lost Scott Edwards in quite a quick couple of overs, which put us on the back foot.

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

De Leede was the star for his team with the ball as well, taking 4-62.

He said he sought out tips on how to bat on slow, spinning tracks of India.

"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," said De Leede.

Rassie van der Dussen hit an unbeaten 76 to lead South Africa to a comfortable five-wicket win over Afghanistan in their last World Cup group game on Friday as their opponents were eliminated from the semi-final race.

Chasing 245 for victory, Van der Dussen steered the Proteas home with 15 balls to spare in a tune-up for their semi-final against Australia next week.

Azmatullah Omarzai hit an unbeaten 97 to guide Afghanistan to 244 all out in a match where they needed an unlikely 438-run win to make the last four.

New Zealand look all set to meet hosts India in the other semi-final unless Pakistan pull off a huge win against England on Saturday.

Playing for pride, Afghanistan's spinners checked South Africa's strong start of 64-0 after Mujeeb Ur Rahman dismissed skipper Temba Bavuma for 23 and fellow spinner Mohammad Nabi trapped Quinton de Kock lbw on 41.

Bavuma's hamstring troubled him throughout the match while fielding and batting in a worrying sign ahead of their semi-final.

De Kock, who will quit one-day internationals when this World Cup is over, overtook New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra (565) to reclaim his top spot in the tournament batting chart with 591 runs including four centuries.

The Proteas put their chase back on track in a third-wicket stand of 50 but leg-spinner Rashid Khan broke through with the wicket of Aiden Markram for 25.

South Africa looked in trouble when Rashid bowled Heinrich Klaasen for 10 but Van der Dussen stood firm to build partnerships including an unbeaten 65-run stand with Andile Phehlukwayo, who hit the winning six in an unbeaten 39.

Earlier Afghanistan slipped to 116-6 before Azmatullah hit his ODI best to lift the team to a competitive total.

South Africa fast bowler Gerald Coetzee took four wickets while spinner Keshav Maharaj returned impressive figures of 2-25.

De Kock played a key part with his six wicketkeeping dismissals to equal a World Cup record of Australia's Adam Gilchrist (v Namibia - Potchefstroom, 2003) and Pakistan's Sarfaraz Ahmed (v South Africa - Auckland, 2015).

Openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran started aggressively before Maharaj struck with his first ball to have Gurbaz caught for 25.

Coetzee sent back Ibrahim in the next over to check the batting surge and Afghanistan slipped from 41-0 to 45-3 when Maharaj had skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi caught behind for two.

Afghanistan lost three more wickets to be in danger of getting bowled out in less than their quota of 50 overs but Azmatullah stood firm to play out the innings.

Afghanistan, led by Hashmatullah Shahidi, ended a strong campaign after they beat defending champions England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands.