CWC2023 : Edwards star in Netherlands stunning win over hot favourites South Africa

 

South Africa yet again fail to  remove Chokers' tag even in this World Cup.  Temba Bavuma's side surprisingly  lost to the Netherlands by 38 runs on Tuesday after sweeping the first two matches of the competition.  This World Cup saw the second upset incident.  England lost to Afghanistan last Sunday.  South Africa's loss to the Netherlands heated up the World Cup group stage battle. The Proteas lost by 38 runs in a rain-hit match.  In reply to Netherlands' 245 runs, South Africa's innings ended with 207 runs.  The Netherlands won against the country by playing a match in ODI World Cup for the first time. South Africa lost to the Netherlands in the 2022 T20 World Cup as well.

 Batting first, Netherlands made 245 runs for 8 wickets.  The Netherlands batters did not get off to a good start in the rain-soaked weather of Dharamshala.  They lost 4 wickets for 50 runs under the influence of South African bowlers.  However, their innings reached a place where they could struggle with the strength of the middle-order batsmen.  The innings of the Netherlands was mainly led by the captain Scott Edwards.  Batting at number seven, he made an unbeaten 78 off 69 balls.  10 fours and 1 six came from his bat as he hit some glorious and effective shots .  From a precarious position of 140/7 , Edwards rescued the Dutch team as the last 3 wickets fought back in style . Apart from him, no other Dutch batsman could score significant runs but couple of his bowlers gave him fabulous support .  However, 245 runs were scored by team effort.  Merwe is the second highest run-scorer for the Netherlands against South Africa after Edwards.  He scored a belligerent  29 runs off 19 balls with the help of 3 fours and 1 six and then Aryan Dutt hit 3 belligerent sixes in his 23  in 8 balls .  The rest did not get enough runs, but the Netherlands batters made small but telling contributions from the fifth wicket onwards . 

 Marco Jansen, the most successful South African bowler, took 2 wickets with 27 runs.  Lungi Ngidi took 2 wickets for 57 runs and Kagiso Rabada took 2 wickets for 56 runs.  1 wicket each for Maharaj and Coetzee.  On this day, it started raining in Dharamshala after the toss.  The game started at 4 pm 2 hours after the scheduled time.  The number of overs is reduced to 43.

Set to bat with a target of 246 runs to win, South Africa started losing wickets at regular intervals from the start.  Bavuma got out after scoring 16 runs off 31 balls after playing a strange knock .  Another opener Quinton de Kock also did not get many  run in Dharamshala's 22 yards.  He scored 20 runs off 22 balls.  Rassi  van der Dussen (4) and Aiden Markram (1) could not give confidence to the team's innings.  South Africa tried to mount some resistance in the fifth wicket pair.  Henrik Klaasen (28) and David Miller (43) put on 45 runs.  Before that, South Africa lost 4 wickets for 44 runs.  Klaasen hit 4 fours.  4 fours and 1 six came from Miller's bat.  Marco Jansen (9) also did not get many runs being comprehensively bowled by MacKeeren  The South African batsmen could not put up any resistance after the pair of Klaasen and Miller broke.  Gerald Coetzee's desperate effort at the end was not enough.  He scored 22 runs off 23 balls.  Keshav Maharaj also tried.  However, there was no top batter left .  Maharaj eventually scored 40 runs off 37 balls.  Hit 5 fours and 1 six.  Most of South Africa's batters played reckless shots on this day and threw away wickets.  They could not bat even 43 overs against the Netherlands.

 Bass de Lied of Netherlands took 2 wickets with 36 runs.  The most successful bowler Roelof van der Merwe took 2 wickets with 34 runs.  Other bowlers also had success against South Africa.  Paul van Meekeren took 2 wickets for 40 runs.  2 wickets for 43 runs by Logan Van Beek.  Colin Ackerman also took 1 wicket.  That is, they have shared the wickets of South Africa.