England cannot afford any mistakes against the Dutch

Exactly a week after the cricket got under way in this World Cup, England will at last take the field. They were due to make a late entry anyway with the much discussed match against Zimbabwe in Harare last Thursday, but the cancellation of that one means that the encounter with the Netherlands at Buffalo Park, East London takes on an even greater magnitude.

From an English point of view, it is unthinkable that there should be an upset in this one, but the possibilities cannot be totally overlooked. To say that England's preparation has been less than perfect is something of an understatement.

Just when they looked to have a settled side and knew what their best eleven was, so Craig White went down with a recurrence of his side injury. That represents a serious blow, even if not so much now certainly it will be against stronger opposition.

Then there has been all the uncertainty of the build-up. Convincing wins in the warm-up matches did the team a lot of good. The uncertainty over the Zimbabwe question will have undone all that beneficial work - and then some.

The Dutch will be well aware of that and would like nothing more than to heap further problems on the English camp. They remember the times when they beat strong English county sides and they recall the time in the 1996 World Cup when they lost by 49 runs. They reckon that in a similar situation they now have the experience to exploit it.

These are brave words, but their performance against India will have been noted by England. The Dutch bowled out the might of India's batting for 204, although their batsmen let them down by getting bowled out for 136. Even so, it was useful experience and they have now been on the World Cup stage.

Having planted the tiniest seeds of doubt, the Dutch should not be able to nurture them to the stage where they burst into flower. If this England side has been able to put aside the distractions that must have had an effect, they believe they have the quality to make an impression in this tournament.

With a full strength team, they can boast a batting order to match almost any. That should be able to score enough runs to make up for the lack of an out and out match-winner in the attack. There are not many of those around, so England's prospects look better than they have done for many a World Cup. The match against the Netherlands is not one that should cause too many problems and, indeed, the team now knows that it cannot afford any mistakes following the Zimbabwe decision.