In the T20 World Cup match held in Adelaide on Sunday, the South African team missed out on the opportunity of the World Cup semi-finals with a shock defeat to the Netherlands. Following this, India will advance to the semi-finals, and the match between Pakistan and Bangladesh will be a knockout match where whichever team wins the match will advance to the semi-finals.
South Africa winning the toss and inviting the Netherlands to bat first on a completely batting pitch was an enigma and the way South Africa played after that raised many doubts. Batting first, Netherlands scored 158 runs for the loss of only 4 wickets in 20 overs. The South African team continued to bat and lost 145/8 and were eliminated with 5 points. With this, the Netherlands, who finished in the top 4 positions, have automatically qualified for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
We wrote that if South Africa were washed out by rain in the opening round, then they were dark horses with wins and won the trophy, which would not have been surprising. But today’s shock defeat to the Netherlands raises serious doubts about the team’s performance. The way the Netherlands played is not to be faulted, they played brilliantly. They created history by defeating South Africa. Had South Africa won this, the Pakistan-Bangladesh match would have been a dead rubber. So a Netherlands win would be a huge boost for Pakistan.
Van der Merwe’s breakthrough catch to David Miller: Netherlands senior player van der Merwe played in the 2009 and 2010 T20 World Cups. He ran behind South Africa’s last hope of victory, David Miller, and slipped the ball away from him, making a turning catch. When South Africa needed 49 off 27 balls, van der Merwe ran back almost 20 feet and took this catch.
Earlier, Netherlands batted brilliantly. Openers Stephan Myburgh (37 off 30 balls, 7 fours) and Max Tauth (29) added 58 runs in 8 overs with Myburgh out first off Markram. A player named Tom Cooper came down and bought it. He scored 35 off 19 balls with two massive sixes and 2 fours. Rabada, Lungi Ingiti took the wickets, and Rabada came out like a mother-in-law who gave away 12 runs in one over, Lungi Ingiti also did not bowl well, it was Henrich Norkia who bowled brilliantly, his 150 km per hour speed was like a bug for the Dutch players. Where did the bravery against India go? Max Taut was then out on 29 runs. Netherlands were 97/2 in 12.4 overs. Maharaj defeated Taut and Tom Cooper.
Netherlands were 123/4 in 17.1 overs. 35 off the remaining 17 balls was due to poor bowling by Ingdi, Rabada and Parnell. Colin Aukerman scored 41 runs off 26 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes while Captain Edwards scored 12 runs off 7 balls with 2 fours. South Africa reached a good score of 158/4. Henrich Norkia bowled brilliantly with 10 runs per wicket in 4 overs, this is the most economical bowling of this World Cup, he, Maharaj and Markram gave only 53 runs in 10 overs to take 4 wickets and the trio of fast bowlers Rabada, Parnell and Ingdi gave 104 runs in 10 overs. This is the cause of failure.
South Africa’s worst batting…Vida’s victory gift to the Netherlands! – A target of 159 runs is an easily achievable target. But Quinton de Kock did his duty with 1 boundary and a six in 13 runs when left-arm bowler Clauson came up and carelessly took an edge and was caught by the wicketkeeper. Themba Bouma stopped playing at one end and went across for 20 runs before Dutch fast bowler Meekeran hit the ball and missed the stumps.
Riley Russo, South Africa’s early star of hope with 25 off 19 balls, next lifted a leg cutter from Glover to deep square leg where Taut took the catch. Aiden Markrum for 17 runs Clausen to cover where Myburgh steps out to take a brilliant catch.
Next is the turning point catch. With David Miller starting the 16th over and with 46 still to go, Glover took a top edge to spin the ball, rose to it 20 feet behind and veteran van der Merwe slid in for a brilliant catch in what has been called the best catch of the series.
South Africa were 120/7 in 17.3 overs when Henrik Clausen was dismissed for 21 and could only manage 25 after that. With Maharaj out for 13 runs, South Africa were 145/8 and exited with a shock defeat. South Africa still retain the nickname ‘Chokers’ as Steve Waugh said.
In the Netherlands side, Glover was amazing with 9 runs and 3 wickets in 2 overs. Pas de Lida 2 wickets. Left arm swing bowler Clauson 2 wickets. The man of the match was Colin Aukerman of the Netherlands.
Thus, the South African team suffered a shock defeat against the Netherlands and missed out on a World Cup semi-final opportunity. India advanced to the semi-finals. The match between Pakistan and Bangladesh is a knock-out match where whichever team wins will advance to the semi-finals.