Netherlands surprise victory ends South Africa ICC T20 WC journey
Result guarantees India a spot in the semi-finals, while the Bangladesh vs Pakistan match becomes a knockout
November 6, 2022 10:14 AM
In a major ICC Men's T-20 Cricket World Cup match at Adelaide, Netherlands beat South Africa by 13 runs today (Sunday) brightening up chances for Pakistan.
Batting first, Netherlands scored 158 runs for the loss of four wickets in allotted twenty overs while South Africa could score 145 for 8 in allotted 20 overs. Netherland's Colin Ackermann was declared player of the match for scoring 41 runs.
In the second match, Pakistan is playing against Bangladesh at the same venue at 9am Pakistan Standard Time. The third match will be played between India and Zimbabwe at Melbourne at 1pm Pakistan standard Time.
Oh, that sinking feeling! That all-too-familiar 'c' thing, which will reverberate - again - for a while to come. The despondency, after being knocked out of yet another World Cup despite having everything under their control…
South Africa will have to deal with all of that and more after their horror run in Adelaide culminated in yet another heartbreak, this one perhaps bigger than anything they have endured in recent times on the cricket field.
But Netherlands, they will celebrate long and hard after scripting a seminal moment in their cricket history. If qualification into the Super 12s was big, victory on Sunday could be even bigger, for a top-four finish in the group will guarantee them automatic qualification for the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup.
Along with Netherlands, all of Pakistan and Bangladesh would have celebrated wildly, too. For their match later in the afternoon - which could have been dead had South Africa won - was turned into a knockout contest to decide the second semi-finalists from Group 1, because Netherlands' win also meant India qualified for the final four.
Netherlands 158 for 4 (Ackermann 41*, Myburgh 37, Cooper 35, Maharaj 2-27) beat South Africa 145 for 8 (Rossouw 25, Glover 3-9, Klaassen 2-20, de Leede 2-25) by 13 runs