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The Netherlands have pulled off perhaps their finest ever victory in world cricket, an outstanding bowling performance strangling the life out of South Africa and sending their Full Member opposition tumbling out of the T20 World Cup.
One of the tournament fancies heading into the match, the Proteas needed only to win a match in which they started red-hot favourites to progress to the semi-finals, but wilted in the face of a never-say-die performance from the Dutch to extend their history of capitulating at crunch moments in major tournaments.
There were heroes everywhere for the underdogs: Stephen Myburgh (37 off 30 balls) dominated the PowerPlay to have the Dutch daring to dream from the outset, Tom Cooper (35 off 19) and Colin Ackermann (41 off 26) saw them through a mid-innings stumble to put a more than respectable 4/158 off their 20 overs, and Brandon Glover needed only two overs to pick up three critical wickets, including the red-hot Rilee Rossouw.
But the biggest of all might be 37-year old veteran Roelof van der Merwe, who started the tournament desperately ambling through for quick singles in a qualifying game having badly thrown out his, back, and finished it with an extraordinary catch running back with the flight to remove Proteas blaster David Miller and put into motion a staggering collapse.
Needing a very achievable 48 runs off the final five overs to qualify for the knockout stage, with Miller and Heinrich Klaasen well set, the wicket was followed two balls later by Wayne Parnell edging behind; South Africa would lose three wickets for just eight runs to leave themselves with too much to do.
Brandon Glover of the Netherlands celebrates after taking the wicket of Rilee Rossouw of South Africa. (Photo by Mark Brake-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
With Keshav Maharaj barely able to run after being inexplicably sent out to the middle, the Proteas crawled to the finish line with singles only, the Dutch at last able to celebrate a phenomenal, tournament-shaping 13-run win.
The Proteas can now only qualify if Bangladesh and Pakistan fail to complete their match, with the winner there set to make an unlikely run into the semi-finals alongside India, who are now guaranteed to proceed.
Remarkably, their washout against Zimbabwe in their World Cup opener, with the Proteas a matter of balls away from a resounding win, will end up costing them dearly.
“I’m a little bit lost for words,” Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said after his side’s win.
“It went so fast, and it’s going to take a little time to take it all in.”
The result means the Netherlands, who only scraped through to the Super 12s at the eleventh hour after Namibia lost to the UAE in the final qualifying game, are now a live chance of earning automatic qualification for the next T20 World Cup, to be held in the West Indies and the USA in 2024.
The top four teams in each group earn direct entry to that tournament without needing to go through qualifying; now sitting in fourth courtesy of their stunning upset, the Dutch will hope Pakistan defeat Bangladesh to hold that spot owing to their superior net run rate over the Tigers.
That [earning direct qualification] was our goal after we lost our first couple of games,” Edwards said.
“We thought, we’re still playing for a spot at the next World Cup. Hopefully results go our way!”
From the moment freewheeling Dutch opener Stephan Myburgh thrashed Kagiso Rabada for three fours in a whirlwind second over, the Associates dared to dream.
Together with Max O’Dowd, Myburgh took 48 off the Proteas’ much-vaunted pace attack in the PowerPlay, the most they had conceded in the first six overs all tournament. A lower and slower Adelaide Oval pitch than previous grounds the South Africans have played on, most obviously in Perth, did much to dampen the quicks’ usual threat.
Even Myburgh’s fall, holing out off part-time spinner Aiden Markram, did nothing to stem the flow of runs; Cooper, a regular in South Australia’s Sheffield Shield team in past seasons and a BBL mainstay, simply picked up the baton.
A remarkable reverse-sweep off Maharaj was the highlight of his crucial 19-ball 35, only ending when he top-edged a slog sweep straight up and into the waiting hands of Quinton de Kock.
With 2/27 from his four overs, Maharaj’s impact was a far cry from all but one of the Proteas’ quicks, with only Anrich Nortje able to gain any real life from the Adelaide Oval strip.
One of the quickest bowlers in world cricket, Nortje was too much for the Dutch to handle; tying down Bas de Leede before knocking out his off stump, he would finish with remarkable figures of 1/10 from his four overs, tightening the screws late in the innings.
In the end, it was a pair of brutal sixes from the bat of Ackerman in Wayne Parnell’s final over of the innings, including off the final ball, that got the Dutch up beyond 150 – a more than defendable target.
The dangerous de Kock started the run chase in a blaze of glory with a picture-perfect cover drive off just the second ball; but his aggression proved the better of him early as the pressure told.
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Charging down the pitch to Fred Klaasen, the keeper-batsman only succeeded in feathering an edge behind to a jubilant Edwards.
With opening partner and captain Temba Bavuma the more sedate of the duo, the asking rate quickly began to grow, Bevuma eventually falling for a run-a-ball 20, bowled trying to invent a flick to fine leg off Paul van Meekeren.
But the true danger man was Rossouw, who had clobbered a monster ton in the Proteas’ win over Bangladesh last week; his feast or famine tournament, though, would continue as he followed a pair of crunching drives off van der Merwe by holing out trying to deposit Brandon Glover over the mid-wicket fence.
Nevertheless, the Proteas still would have felt confident in victory, even as Markram fell too to a fine catch by Myburgh at cover; with Miller at the crease, the run rate was never truly out of hand.
It’s why the match hung in the balance as Miller’s skied pull off Glover in the 16th over did; running back with the flight from short fine leg, the 37-year old limbs of van der Merwe sprinted for his life, dived, and pulled off an incredible catch just millimetres from the turf.
Now faced with the real threat of elimination, the last two noted hitters, Klaasen and Parnell, fell soon after trying to force the pace: in a flash, 48 from five overs with six wickets in hand had become 36 from two overs with only three to spare.
With Rabada unable to find his timing and Maharaj literally hopping through for singles in near-farcical scenes, the match was all over bar the shouting.
“It is rather disappointing,” Bavuma said after the game – a slight understatement.
“We really played well up until this game to get to this point within the tournament. We knew it was a must-win game. It’ll be a hard one to swallow for the guys.
“I probably look at myself first – winning the toss and then bowling first. You want to be showing why… letting them get to nearly 160 wasn’t ideal.
“We lost wickets at crucial times and we just couldn’t get any momentum. The wicket – they used the dimensions of the field much better than we did.
“From all of us, it just wasn’t good enough.”
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