A very decent crowd of 11,224 was in attendance at the HPCA Stadium in picturesque Dharamshala as the Netherlands pulled off one of the greatest upsets in their cricket history by beating South Africa by 38 runs.
Holland were put in by SA skipper Temba Bavuma- not surprising given the overcast conditions in Dharamshala that had delayed the start of play by two hours, and were 140/7 at one stage before skipper Scott Edwards’ sparkling half century, aided by timely cameos from former Protea Roelof van der Merwe and tailender Aryan Dutt, saw them pick up a staggering 104 runs off the last 9 overs.
The Dutch used spin in the powerplay and South Africa started cautiously in their powerplay. The loss of double WC centurion Quinton de Kock to Colin Ackermann saw a mini collapse as the Proteas went from 36/0 to 44/4. Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller steadied things before Klaasen pulled a wide delivery from Logan van Beek straight down the throat of Vikram Singh at third man. Van Beek also accounted for Miller and despite the best efforts of Keshav Maharaj at the end, South Africa simply had too much to do, and fell short by 38 runs.
