David Miller made a fifty on a difficult pitch as South Africa survived some anxious moments to defeat their bogey side the Netherlands by four wickets in the T20 World Cup on Saturday. This was South Africa’s second successive win as they defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the opening match of Group D. After SA decided to bowl, pacer Ottneil Baartman recorded his best bowling figures of 4 for 11, as South Africa produced an excellent bowling effort to restrict the Netherlands to 103 for nine. Despite some early mishaps, Miller (59 not out off 51) played a gem of an innings to guide South Africa home with a ball to spare. It was a torrid start to South Africa’s chase as they lost Quinton de Kock off the first delivery to exhaustion. It happened after a terrible mix-up with Reeza Hendricks.
Hendricks didn’t last long either, as he was castled by Logan van Beek in the next game.
If that wasn’t enough, captain Aiden Markram stole a delivery from Vivian Kingma to Scott Edwards behind the stumps in the next game.
Things got worse for South Africa when Henrich Klaasen was caught at backward square leg by Tim Pringle off Kingma as SA slumped to 12 for 4 in the fifth over.
When things were tough, experienced Miller and young shooter Tristan Stubbs formed a crucial 65-run fifth-wicket partnership to keep South Africa in the race.
The duo rose to the occasion and mostly tried to negotiate the bowlers, while Miller picked a few boundaries and a six between them to keep the asking rate in check.
Despite losing wickets in the early stages, South Africa had the wherewithal to overcome the paltry target as Miller and Stubbs played to the situation without taking too many risks.
Stubbs and then Marco Jansen departed in quick succession, but Miller hit Bas de Leede for two sixes and a four in the final over to put the finishing touches to the game.
Earlier, Baartman returned with impressive numbers, while Jansen (2/20) and Anrich Nortje (2/19) took two wickets each.
South Africa got off to a brilliant start, getting their first breakthrough off the third ball of the innings.
Jansen induced an inside edge from Michael Levitt, which wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock caught even when the bowler and umpire failed to notice the blow. De Kock immediately went for the review and was successful.
It could have been two down for Holland in the third over. Vikramjit Singh’s outside edge off a short delivery from Jansen was intercepted by De Kock but the bowler had gone long over.
The Dutch batsmen found it difficult to negotiate the South African bowlers on the tricky New York pitch as they kept losing wickets.
Baartman registered his name in the wickets column when he dismissed Max O’Dowd, but credit must go to Jansen, who took a blind one-handed catch at first slip.
Vikramjit was unable to profit from the postponement as he soon departed in the next game, with Jansen disturbing his woodwork.
De Leede also found the uneven bounce of the pitch difficult to deal with as he slotted a goal past Miller on the wing following a long delivery from Nortje.
Dutch captain Edwards showed some aggression from the start, hitting Nortje for a six, but his SA counterpart Markram found him close to the mark with a direct shot at the non-striker’s end.
It was raining wickets for South Africa when Nortje dismissed Teja Nidamanuru in the same delivery in which the batsman scored to Klaasen at third man.
Sybrand Engelbrecht (40 off 45) and Van Beek then shared 54 runs for the seventh wicket to bring some respectability to the Netherlands’ total.
But once Engelbrecht and Tim Pringle departed in the final, the writing was on the wall for the Netherlands as they only managed an underwhelming total.
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