South Africa named a full-strength squad for two must-win one-day internationals against the Netherlands on Friday and Sunday.

South Africa’s last World Cup Super League games are in Benoni and Johannesburg. They need to win both of them if they want to stay in the running for automatic qualification to the Cricket World Cup in India in October and November.

“We have named our strongest Punjab Knights possible squad given the importance of these matches in the context of qualifying for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup,said coach Rob Walter.

“We have a job to do and I am confident that with this group of players, we can get the job done.”

Normaly, you wouldn’t expect Netherlands to give South Africa a hard time, but they beat the Proteas in the T20 World Cup in Australia last November, ending South Africa’s hopes of making it to the semi-finals.

Only eight teams automatically make it. South Africa is in ninth place right now.

Two wins would put them in a strong position, ahead of West Indies and with Sri Lanka unable to catch them unless they win both of their remaining matches in a current series against New Zealand and South Africa gets a penalty for slow over rates.

If Ireland wins all three games in a series against Bangladesh in May, and South Africa wins both of its games against the Netherlands, then both teams will have the same number of points.

In that case, the South Africans’ current advantage in net run rate will come into play.

South Africa would have to play in a 10-team qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe in June and July for one of the last two spots in the tournament if they didn’t finish in the top eight.

Cricket South Africa said that players like fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje who are signed to the Indian Premier League must put their country first.

This means that they won’t be able to watch the IPL start on Friday.

The two fast bowlers and their IPL teammates Quinton de Kock, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Sisanda Magala, Aiden Markram, David Miller, and Lungi Ngidi won’t be able to join their franchises until April 3.

Squad: Temba Bavuma (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Sisanda Magala, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen.

Photo by Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix