Image Credit- Getty
The Netherlands defeated South Africa in Dharamsala on
Tuesday, earning their most illustrious ODI World Cup victory and their first
victory over a Test-playing country in five tournament appearances thanks to
Scott Edwards’ inspirational leadership. At the post-game awards ceremony,
Edwards stated that he was “extremely proud” of his team and
“very excited to get our first win out of the way” in this iteration.
“We came into this tournament with high
expectations, we feel like we’re playing good cricket, we’ve got a lot of good
players… but in saying that, we know that there are nine other very good sides
here,” he said. “So, yeah, very excited to get our first win out of the
way after three games and hopefully a few more to come.
“That’s a massive boost for us. In both the first
two games, we were in decent positions, but we sort of fell away through the
middle. Nice that we could put a few partnerships together at the end [against
South Africa] and get ourselves to a total which we thought could be
competitive.”
When the Netherlands were sent to bat and were 82 for
5 with few hitters left, Edwards walked in. That quickly turned into 112 for 6,
then 140 for 7, then Edwards and Roelof van der Merwe paired for 64 runs for
the eighth wicket, and then they had a 41-run partnership for the ninth wicket
with Aryan Dutt in almost any time (Dutt scored 23 not out in nine balls),
taking Netherlands to 245 for 8.
At the time, it didn’t seem like a match-winning
total, but as Edwards put it, it was very competitive and perhaps higher than
South Africa anticipated having to chase.
“I think over the last couple of games, our
issue’s been too many of our middle-order batters getting out before the end of
the game,” he said. “So I was just sort trying to take it deep and
hope that a couple of guys around me chip in and… yeah, we were lucky enough
to get I don’t know how many towards the end there, but it was nice.”
First, there was van der Merwe, the one-time South
Africa international, who scored 29 in 19. “He’s good fun to bat
with,” Edwards said. “He runs hard, which I like, and he hits it to
quite strange areas. Good to watch and I am sure it’s good from the outside as
well.”
And then Dutt. “I think it was pretty easy on my
behalf [batting with Dutt],” Edwards said. “I just sort of got him on
strike and he was just clearing the ropes. That’s some of the best hitting I
have seen in a long time, especially from a No. 10 bat. So, yeah, he’s got the
talent and it was awesome to see today.”