Outperforming expectations, the Netherlands astonished everyone on Tuesday, October 18, in Dharamsala by handily defeating South Africa in the ODI World Cup 2023. South African Captain Temba Bavuma opens up about their team’s loss after the match.
In an astonishing turn of events, the Netherlands pulled off a remarkable upset at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 with an inspiring performance. They delivered a resounding defeat to South Africa at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, emerging victorious by a margin of 38 runs in a league match. This marks the second major upset at this year’s World Cup in just three days, following Afghanistan’s impressive 69-run win over England in Delhi on Sunday.
It’s worth noting that the Dutch team had previously defeated South Africa in the 2022 T20 World Cup, and they’ve now replicated their outstanding performance in the 50-overs format. The impact of this surprising victory has reverberated across social media, with everyone expressing their admiration for the dominant display by the men in orange against a world-class opponent like South Africa. Remarkably, this victory signifies only their third triumph in World Cup history, and it comes after a gap of 16 years.
The Dutch team made a remarkable recovery after being at 82/5 and then 140/7 in a rain-affected 43-over match, ultimately reaching a total of 245/8. In response, the Proteas fought hard but were eventually all out for 207, resulting in a 38-run victory for the Dutch side. South Africa’s captain, Temba Bavuma, who had led his team to two consecutive victories at the beginning of the tournament, openly expressed that this loss would be a painful one. He emphasized the importance of his team remembering this defeat.
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“You got to let the emotion kind of seep in. Don’t think there is any point in trying to forget what’s happened. It is going to hurt, it should hurt. But then you come back tomorrow, you wake up and we get back onto the journey. Our campaign is not over by any stretch of the imagination, but you got to feel the emotion of today and come back tomorrow with the head held up,” Bavuma said at the post-match presentation.
In an unusual turn of events, the South African team conceded an unusually high number of extras, a total of 31, during their recent match. Bavuma expressed his concern, emphasizing the need to rein in this aspect in future ODI World Cup matches. Furthermore, their fielding performance fell short of their usual standards, which is something not typically associated with them.
“The extras that’s something you can control. Getting 30 (31) extras, that is an extra five overs is always going to hurt you. That is a conversation for us to have – whether it is skill or a complacency thing – but at the end it did count for quite a thing. We were clinical against Australia, but the challenge was always to come back and replicate that performance. The fielding wasn’t up to standard. Again if you look at the way we fielded against Australia compared to today, definitely not the same standard. Those are conversations we need to have. The guys need to answer the questions themselves where mentally they were. That’s definitely not the standard we’d like to show from a fielding point of view,” Bavuma further added.
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