India's Mahendra Dhoni bats in the nets during a practice session in Montego Bay on Sunday. - Reuters

India, one of the past champions, and Netherlands, one of the cinderellas in this year's contest, square-off in a warm-up match at the Multi-Purpose Stadium in Trelawny today as the 16 teams, the best in the world, continue their preparation for the 2007 World Cup which gets under way next Tuesday.

One of the favourites to win the title, India, winners in 1983 when, despite their first-round victory over the defending champions, they surprised and picked off the West Indies in the final, won their only match against the Netherlands when, in winning five of their six first-round matches, they defeated them in 2003.

Today's confrontation being a warm-up match, it will not matter who wins. With the World Cup just a few days away, however, India will certainly not like to lose and should be too good for a team that has won only one of their 11 matches in two previous World Cup appearances.

Most balanced team

Led by skipper Rahul Dravid, India, who in Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly parade two former captains, boast one of the most balanced teams in the competition, and even if they do not win it, are expected to go a long way - probably straight to the final.

Blessed with the likes of Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, and Mehendra Singh Dhoni, plus Dravid, Tendulkar, and Ganguly as batsmen, blessed with the likes of Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and Munaf Patel as pace bowlers, blessed with the likes of Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar plus spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, India, who are brilliant in the field, are good in every department of the game. That is why they are numbered not only among the favourites but also among the top favourites - probably only behind Australia and/or South Africa.

Against players like those, the Netherlands, even with batsman Bas Zuiderent, are minnows, and with their opening match in the World Cup coming against South Africa in St. Kitts next week Friday, this warm-up exercise could be very important to them.

Dutch line-up

In qualifying for the World Cup, the Netherlands defeated the United Arab Emirates in the play-off for fifth and sixth places at the ICC's qualification tournament, and they did so courtesy of an undefeated innings of 116 by Zuiderent.

Apart from Zuiderent, the batsmen to look for in the Dutch line-up are captain Luuk van Troost, Tim de Leede - a 39-year-old middle-order big hitter at his third World Cup, Darron Reekers - a 33-year-old who appears in the middle-order, Alexei Kervezee - a 17-year-old stylish youngster who is on Warwickshire's books, and Ryan ten Doeschate - a South African born Essex big hitter who scored four centuries including a top score 289 in the recent World Cricket League tournament.

- TB