South Africa beat Netherlands by 4 wickets
New York, United States, AFP: South Africa overcame an early batting collapse before sealing a four-wicket victory over bogey team the Netherlands in their T20 World Cup Group D clash in New York on Saturday.
The Proteas, chasing a modest victory target of 104 after opting to bowl first and restricting the Dutch to 103, looked to be in peril after slumping to 12-4 after 4.3 overs at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium.
But David Miller’s unbeaten 59 steadied the ship and dragged South Africa over the line as they finished on 106-6 with seven balls to spare.
Ottniel Baartman produced a dazzling four-wicket bowling performance as South Africa restricted the Netherlands to 103 for 9. Baartman finished with stunning figures of 4-11 off four overs.
Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje both grabbed two wickets to keep the Dutch batsman on the back foot. Jansen had the Netherlands rocking in the opening over, getting rid of Michael Levitt caught behind for a duck after a review.
Jansen was involved again for South Africa’s second dismissal, taking a superb one-handed diving catch at first slip after Max O’Dowd edged behind off Baartman. That left the Netherlands reeling on 15-2 after four overs. They were three down in the following over as Jansen bagged his second wicket, obliterating Vikramjist Singh’s stumps to make it 17-3.
Bas de Leede was the next to fall, caught off Nortje for six runs from a delivery which rocketed up off the wicket. It got worse for the Netherlands in the 12th over as first Scott Edwards was run out for 10 after a superb piece of fielding by South Africa skipper Aiden Markram.
Nortje then bagged another wicket three balls later after Teja Nidamanuru’s leading edge flew all the way to deep third man into the hands of Heinrich Klaasen to make it 48-6. Sybrand Engelbrecht and Logan van Beek staged a fleeting fightback before falling to Baartman for 40 and 23 respectively as South Africa’s bowlers reasserted themselves in the final overs.
| Chief Scores | |
| Netherlands 103 for 9 (20) (Sybrand Engelbrecht 40, Logan van Beek 23; Ottneil Baartman 4/11, Anrich Nortje 2/19, Marco Jansen 2/20) South Africa 106 for 6 (18.5) (David Miller 59n.o., Tristan Stubbs 33, Vivian Kingma 2/12, Logan van Beek 2/20) |