An incredible moment for Netherlands cricket as they register their first-ever win against South Africa in any format.
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After handy contributions from the Dutch batting order comprising of player of the match Colin Ackermann (41* off 26), Stephan Myburgh (37 off 30), Tom Cooper (35 off 19) and steady innings of 29 off 31 balls from Max O’Dowd put them in a good position at 158/4, their bowling attack then put up a great performance to beat the strong South African lineup.
Fred Klaassen gave South Africa some early problems by dismissing Quinton de Kock in the third over itself. Skipper Temba Bavuma got a good start but soon followed de Kock back in the hut on the final ball of the powerplay as Paul van Meekeren trapped him in front of his stumps.
Top scorer Rilee Rossouw (25 off 19) and Aiden Markram (17 off 13) added 25 runs for the third wicket. Markram then added further 26 runs with David Miller (17 off 17) for the fourth wicket which was the highest partnership for the Proteas.
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Netherlands bowlers kept picking up wickets at regular intervals with right-arm medium bowler Brandon Glover bowling a terrific 2-over spell picking up 3 wickets for conceding just 9 runs. Bas de Leede bowled a crucial spell as well accounting for the wickets of Heinrich Klaasen and Keshav Maharaj at crucial junctions.
Early wickets meant the scoreboard pressure was already up for the Proteas as they failed to score at a good rate continuously and pushed the required rate to more than 10 runs an over which became impossible to breach for the batting order.
Full credit goes to the Dutch bowlers and the fielders as well who put up a great performance to back each other with brilliant efforts in the field, be it catches or quickly getting to the ball to avoid some handy runs for South Africa.
Post Match- Comments
Scott Edwards (Netherlands captain): I am lost for words. Went so fast. This is going to take a bit of time to take it all in. We are used to these conditions in Netherlands. We were confident around the 160 mark to defend this. Another great experience, another big upset from the Netherlands. Absolute goal for us after losing the first two games that we are still playing for a spot in the next World Cup. Two results go our way.
Temba Bavuma (South Africa captain): Very disappointing. We really played well before this game. We knew it was a must-win game and again we faltered when it mattered. Hard one to swallow for the guys. We had the confidence and the belief to get to the knockouts. You can pick out a lot of things when you lose that way. Firstly myself with the toss, winning the toss and bowling first. Wasn’t ideal to let them off to a start and let them score 158. With the bat we just got stuck similar to the Pakistan game. We lost wickets at crucial times. The wicket maybe got a bit hard, but they used the dimensions of the ground a lot better than we did. From all of us, just wasn’t good enough.
Colin Ackermann (Player of the Match): It feels fantastic, really deserve this victory today, the boys have worked so hard for the last six months. That has been the theme of this World Cup. You got to earn the right to hit boundaries at the end. The surface was slower and we knew 160 was competitive, yeah it was a great performance. I need to speak to the skip about that actually (smiles) [on him not bowling much before this game in the tournament]. The South Africans had a few left-handers and the matchups worked well.
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