NEW YORK: Brilliant bowling effort from Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortje and Ottneil Baartman helped South Africa to restrict Netherlands to 103/9 in the 16th match of the T20 World Cup 2024 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
From the beginning of the match, the Proteas dominated the match and gave the Netherlands little chance to score runs in the first inning.
After winning the toss, Aiden Markram-led South Africa put Netherlands to bat first and the decision to field first did go in their favour.
Michael Levitt (0 runs from 3 balls) and Max ODowd (2 runs from 6 balls) opened for the Duth and could only make a one-run partnership as pacer Marco Jansen managed to make the first breakthrough of the game in the first over as he removed Levitt.
The Netherlands found it hard to stand still in front of the Proteas pacers. Ottneil Baartman removed another opener ODowd from the crease in the fourth over.
After the second dismissal of the game, the Netherlands kept on losing quick wickets and by the end of the 12th over the Dutch side were at 48/6. Scott Edwards’ side found it hard to cross the 50-run mark, but Sybrand Engelbrecht (40 runs from 45 balls, 2 fours and 1 six) and Logan van Beek (23 runs from 22 balls, 3 fours) added a few crucial runs on the scoreboard by making a crucial partnership.
After the end of the 12th over, Engelbrecht and Van Beek made a partnership of 54 runs as South Africa found it hard to bag wickets in the middle overs. However, in the final over of the first inning, Netherlands lost three wickets as Ottneil Baartman removed Engelbrecht, Tim Pringle, and van Beek all in one over.
Baartman led the Proteas bowling attack by picking up four wickets and stopped the Dutch side to 103/9. While Jansen and Nortje bagged two wickets each in their respective spell.
The Proteas need to make 104 runs to win the match.
Brief score: Netherlands 103/9 (Sybrand Engelbrecht 40, Logan van Beek 23, Vikramjit Singh 12; Ottneil Baartman 4/11) vs South Africa. (ANI)