(Image source: X.com)
[Saba Sports News] The Netherlands made history on Tuesday by defeating the South African team by 38, registering their third ODI World Cup win ever. It was the first time that the Dutch beat a full member nation in an ODI World Cup. Also, this also marked the first instance of South Africa losing an ODI against an associate nation.
Netherlands batted first in the match after losing the toss. Notably, the match was affected by rain, and the game was shortened, with both teams allotted 43 overs instead of 50. Netherlands captain Scott Edwards was the highest scorer for his team, accumulating 78 runs off 69 balls coming in to bat at number seven. Cameos by Roelof van der Merwe and Aryan Dutt helped the Dutch reach a score of 245. In the last ten overs, the Men in Orange smashed 105 runs.
While chasing, Netherlands shocked the Proteas by dismissing half of their side at 89. The last hope for the Temba Bavuma-led outfit was David Miller, but he too did not last long as Logan van Beek bowled him for 43. It was van Beek again who dismissed the last man, Keshav Maharaj, sealing the historic win in the mountainous setting.
After the win, the winning captain and Player of the Match Edwards expressed his joy at defeating the Proteas and praised his team for their superior performance. He also mentioned that the Netherlands had high expectations before the tournament and looks forward to spoiling the party for some other sides too.
“We came into this tournament with high expectations, we feel like we’re playing good cricket, we’ve got a lot of good players… but in saying that, we know that there are nine other very good sides here. So, yeah, very excited to get our first win out of the way after three games and hopefully a few more to come,” Edwards was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
The Dutch captain further acknowledged that the team is playing some good cricket in the tournament but fell short of crossing the finish line both times against Pakistan and New Zealand before eventually bagging a win versus South Africa.
“That’s a massive boost for us. In both the first two games, we were in decent positions, but we sort of fell away through the middle. Nice that we could put a few partnerships together at the end [against South Africa] and get ourselves to a total which we thought could be competitive,” he added.
The Netherlands will next face Sri Lanka on the 21st of October in Lucknow.