Netherlands defeated mighty South Africa by 38 runs at the Cricket World Cup on Tuesday as the European outsiders humiliated the Proteas for the second time in a year.
Chasing 246 to win, South Africa, one of the tournament favourites, were bowled out for 207 in the shadow of the Himalayas. In November last year, the Dutch sent South Africa crashing out of the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.
Earlier, Netherlands managed to finish with a fightable target as skipper Scott Edwards played a beautiful innings of 78 runs. Tail-end batter Aryan Dutt smashed some crucial SIXES in the final few overs to push the final score at 244/8.
South African pacers are dominating the game completely as wickets kept falling for Netherlands. Gerald Coetzee striked to dismiss Colin Ackermann while pacer Lungi Ngidi departed Sybrand Engelbrecht.
Kagiso Rabada clinched 2 wickets to dominate Netherlands batter today. First he dismissed Vikramjit Singh and then in form Bas de Leede. Netherlands batters are struggling under South African pace attack.
Lungi Ngidi is leading South Africa's pace attack and will look to provide his team with some early wickets. Netherlands openers Vikramjit Singh and Max O'Dowd started cautiously and are playing according to the slow conditions.
As the skies get clear in Dharamshala, the match is reduced to 43 overs with first powerplay of 9 overs. Netherlands openers Vikramjit Singh and Max O'Dowd will begin the innings soon.
South Africa vs Netherlands match start after much delay due the rains but as the game began, Netherlands opener Max O'Dowd is looking in good shape. Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen are leading South Africa's pace attack
Captain Scott Edwards smashed an undefeated 78 while Roelof van der Merwe returned to stun his homeland with a late cameo as the Netherlands made a fighting 245-8 against South Africa in the World Cup on Tuesday.
Edwards's runs came off 69 balls and featured 10 fours and a six.
Meanwhile, 38-year-old Van der Merwe, who played 13 ODIs for the Proteas before switching allegiance, hit a quickfire 29 off 19 balls with three fours and a six before he was caught behind off Lungi Ngidi.
In their two matches so far, South Africa have dominated their opponents, beating Sri Lanka by 102 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in their first encounter, and handing five-time champions Australia a 134-run defeat at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow in their second.
The African side have looked in exceptional form with both bat and bowl. While the Proteas scored more than 300 runs in both matches, they made a statement in the second match by restricting the mighty Australians to 177.
In stark contrast to South Africa, the Netherlands endured defeat in their two opening fixtures. In the first game against Pakistan, the Dutch bowled well and took three quick wickets before Saud Shakeel and Fakhar Zaman took the game away from them to help the Asian side post a total of 286. In reply, the Netherlands never looked close to chasing down the total and were eventually bowled out for 205.
In the second match, the Netherlands were bowled out by a strong all-round performance from the Kiwis. New Zealand posted a total of 322 runs in their 50 overs, which the Netherlands were unable to chase down and were eventually bowled out for 223.