South Africa avoided their recent hoodoo against the Netherlands to register a thrilling four-wicket win in the 16th match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on Saturday, June 8. Ottneil Baartman delivered a sensational spell to restrict the Dutch side to 103 and then David Miller played a match-winning knock to help the Proteas register their second win of this tournament in New York.
In another low-score affair at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, bowlers from both teams shone with impressive spells but David Miller stood strong by smashing 59* off 51 balls to lead South Africa to a hard-fought win with seven balls remaining.
Both teams remained unchanged from their respective wins in the last games as South Africa elected to bowl first after winning the toss. Marco Jansen delivered a quick success by removing Michael Levitt in the very first over and then bagged Vikramjot Singh's valuable wicket to put Netherlands under pressure in powerplay.
Baartman then bowled a stunning spell with timely wickets which left the Dutch side stumbling to a 48/6 total in 12 overs. Netherlands managed to fight back through a stellar 54-run stand by Sybrand Engelbrecht and Logan van Beek for the seventh wicket with the former top-scoring with 40 runs off 45 balls.
Baartman picked two more wickets in the last over to restrict Netherlands to a total of 103/9 in 20 overs. Baatman bagged four for 11 in his four overs while Jansen and Anrich Nortje claimed two wickets each.
Chasing a low-score target, the Proteas found themselves 3 wickets down with just three runs on the scoreboard. South Africa also lost Heinrich Klaasen in the fifth over to completely lose the momentum to Netherlands in the powerplay.
But Tristan Stubbs and David Miller staged a stunning fight back by adding a match-defining 65-run stand for the fifth wicket. Stubbs walked out after scoring crucial 33 runs off 37 balls but Miller remained unbeaten to guide South Africa to an impressive win. Miller also bagged the Player of the Match award for his valiant effort.
Netherlands Playing XI: Michael Levitt, Max ODowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma.
South Africa Playing XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram (c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ottneil Baartman.
