The Netherlands’ second-highest total against South Africa was sandwiched by fortys from Vikramjit Singh and Teja Nidamanuru, but the absence of strong partnerships prevented them from reaching 200.
The Netherlands made a strong start and showed promising signs on a field that suited both seamers and spinners, but they were unable to build on their performances because of long waves of attack from South Africa’s bowlers, who were challenging to score off.
Sisanda Magala hit the perfect lengths, Anrich Nortje varied his pace, Tabraiz Shamsi found a turn, and Marco Jansen finished off a blazing opening spell with the final wicket while Kagiso Rabada went without picking up a wicket.
They divided up the ten wickets taken by the Netherlands equally, leaving their batters anxious. In the absence of any rain delays, South Africa will be sure that it will earn all ten World Cup Super League points.
Vikramjit and Max O’Dowd’s opening stand of 58 runs, which was dominated by the latter, gave Netherlands a strong start. When Kagiso Rabada missed down leg and Vikramjit supported the ball going over the boundary, he scored the game’s first runs.
After surviving a challenging first over from Jansen, who found swing, the left-hander set his claws into the short ball and hit Rabada for two sixes in his fourth over. Vikramjit also hit Magala for a four through the covers and past point, bringing the Netherlands’ total after the first 10 overs to 54 without loss.
Generally speaking, South Africa began the match by bowling too quickly, but Magala made corrections after the powerplay. With a ball outside off that O’Dowd tried to guide to deep third but edged to Quinton de Kock, he ended an over of decent length and fuller deliveries. Before anybody could even fully argue, O’Dowd walked.
Vikramjit seemed calm and continued to pull Magala for his third six before failing to hit a chip straight to Temba Bavuma at mid-off and was removed five runs short of fifty. Three overs later, Wesley Barresi picked out Rabada on the fine-leg boundary while attempting to flip Nortje over, and the Netherlands lost a third wicket.
It was up to captain Scott Edwards and Musa Ahmed to calm the situation down when they were 81 for 3 in the 18th over, but Edwards was drawn into a drive off Nortje and edged to Jansen at slip. Before trying to cut Shamsi off and nicking off, Musa edged Nortje wide of the slip before pulling him behind square. After 26 overs, Netherlands were 105 for 5.
When Nidamanuru blasted a Jansen half-volley over backward square leg for six points and then moved over to smash him over square leg for another six, he took the fight to South Africa. Shariz Ahmad was stumped down the leg side two overs after Aiden Markram came in to replace Jansen, keeping Netherlands in trouble.
Aryan Dutt ended an interesting cameo by hitting Markram for a six over his head before attempting the same against a Shamsi mistake and finding Rabada at deep midwicket. When Nidamanuru pushed a Nortje delivery and UltraEdge detected a slight edge, he was on 47. Neither Nortje nor de Kock appealed.
However, Nidamanuru didn’t add any more runs to his total before he missed a chance off Magala, preventing him from reaching his second half-century of his career.
Magala believed he had finished off Paul van Meekeren when he reviewed a lbw shout against Fred Klaasen after his opponent had been floored by a Shamsi googly and foxed. Hawkeye nevertheless revealed it was lacking a leg.
After Ryan Klein cut the ball into the air for a straightforward opportunity to be caught and bowled, South Africa just had to wait one more ball for Jansen to take the decisive wicket.
The final six wickets for Netherlands were lost for 84 runs. The Netherlands haven’t given South Africa a total to chase in six ODI matches, and they could be worried that they didn’t post a difficult enough total.