Dutch win hearts, break South African to pieces

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Turning point

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The turning point of the match was a piece of sheer on-field brilliance by a 37-year-old veteran Roelof van der Merwe, who was the player of the match on his South Africa debut 16 years ago. The former Protea came to torment his team again when he plucked the catch of the tournament. Without sunglasses, under the white sky, he clung onto a difficult catch from David Miller. He was placed at short fine leg, and turned around and started running the moment the ball took off Miller’s top edge, kept on running with an eye on the ball, and took an excellent tumbling catch to his left. Before this, South Africa were 112/4 in 15 overs. They were soon to be 120/7 in pursuit of 159.

Ackermann’s show

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The reason the Dutch crossed 150 was Colin Ackermann’s 26-ball 41. He too has a South Africa connection, as he was born in Johannesburg and was the vice captain of U-19 side in the 2010 junior World Cup. After successive seasons wherein he topped the first-class batting charts, he won the Domestic Players’ Player of the Season at Cricket South Africa’s annual awards in 2017 and was primed to play Test cricket. But as it turned out, he moved to England to play county with Leicestershire the same year. Soon he made use of his Dutch passport and began to represent them.

Then he came to haunt them with lusty strokes down the order. His knock, studded with three fours and two sixes, helped the Dutch blast 35 runs in the last three overs. With the ball in hand, Ackerman choked the scoring rate of the Proteas with his offbreaks. However, he failed to pick any wickets and gave only 16 runs in three overs.

Flying start for the Dutch

going. Skipper Scott Edwards played a couple of reverse ramp shots against Kagiso Rabada to keep the scoreboard ticking. At the top, Stephan Myburgh set it up with cracking boundaries in the powerplay. The Netherlands targeted the short boundaries well and got the maximums at the right times. Ackerman finished the innings with a flourish by hitting two sixes off Lungi Ngidi.

It spoiled a terrific spell from Anrich Nortje, who produced the most economical bowling spell (4-0-10-1) in the Super-12 stage. He was fiery, fast and straight But he never got enough support from other pacers as Rabada, Ngidi and Parnell went for runs.

Not a chase

Defending the target, Netherlands bowlers rose to the occasion and restricted South Africa to 145 for 8, with Brandon Glover (3/9) scalping three batters. Glover too was born in Johannesburg, but was persuaded to relocate to the Netherlands by assistant coach Ryan Campbell, as he thought his opportunities would be limited with the likes of Rabada, Nortje, Ngidi and Marco Jansen. Though the target was not steep, South Africa never looked in total control during the chase, with only Rilee Rossouw offering a fight with 25 runs.

ica to 145 for 8 with Brandon Glover (3/9) scalping three batters. Rilee Rossouw top-scored for South Africa with a 25-run knock.

Brief Scores
Netherlands: 158 for 4 in 20 overs (Colin Ackermann 41 not out; Keshav Maharaj 2/27 beat South Africa: 145 for 8 in 20 overs (Rilee Rossouw 25; Brandon Glover 3/9) by 13 runs.