South Africa stroll to easy win over Netherlands
South Africa brushed Netherlands aside in a clinical fashion to win the 16th game of the World Cup by 231 runs at the PCA in Mohali.
By Suneer Chowdhary
Mohali: Mar 3, 2011
All talks of the Dutch side taking inspiration from Ireland’s freak win over England came to nothing today. South Africa brushed Netherlands aside in a clinical fashion to win the 16th game of the World Cup by 231 runs at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. With this win, they also went atop the points table with their second win in as many games, leaving India and England behind at three points.
The 352-run chase was never on. It had required a combination of poor bowling, appalling fielding, flat-as-a-highway track and a freak innings from Kevin O’Brien that allowed Ireland to chase down the English total. None of it was on display when Netherlands chased today.
Once Alexei Kervezee was sent back by Jacques Kallis, the only piece of resistance came from his wicket-keeping, opening partner Wesley Barresi. He got 44 before being stumped off JP Duminy. There were starts for the likes of Bas Zuiderent, Ryan ten Doeschate and Tom de Grooth, but none of them managed to pass 20.
On most days, one would hold the South African attack at a higher pedestal than the English one but with the emergence of Imran Tahir, there were no accidents towards the end either. Tahir possesses an excellently disguised googly, more so against the relatively inexperienced sides and he ran through with a three-wicket haul to bring his tally to seven wickets in two ODIs. Netherlands were bowled out for 120 in the 35th over.
South Africa’s clinical approach can be gauged from the manner in which they batted. As if to provide a lesson or two to the Indian and the English sides on how to go about their business in the last few overs of the innings, South Africa amassed 136 runs in the last 10 overs of the innings. That propelled the already exhilarating score of 215 in the 40 overs to a mammoth and a near-improbable target of 352 for the Dutch side.
The foundation of that innings was laid through the third wicket stand between usually unflappable Hashim Amla and centurion from the previous game, AB de Villiers. Amla’s was a tedious start but he got into his straps quickly enough but it was de Villiers who took the South African innings to the heady heights of their final tally.
Both hit centuries, with de Villiers getting to 134 off 98 deliveries before JP Duminy provided the icing on the cake by slamming a 15-ball 40.
Brief Scores: South Africa 351 for 5 in 50 overs (AB de Villiers 134, Hashim Amla 113; Ryan ten Doeschate 3 for 72, Bernard Loots 1 for 60) bt Netherlands 120 all out in 34.5 overs (Wesley Barresi 44, Bas Zuiderent 15; Imran Tahir 3 for 19, Robin Peterson 2 for 22)
Man of the Match: AB de Villiers
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
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