The ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 is all about twists and turns as well as some unbelievable upsets. A glimpse of such was seen on Sunday when the Netherlands defeated South Africa and knocked them out of the multi-team event.
Ahead of this game, South Africa were just a win away from confirming a semi-final spot, but in a major upset, the Temba Bavume-led side faced an embarrassing defeat.
After posting 158/4 on the board, the Dutch bowlers kept the South African batters in check and under control, eventually restricting them to 145/8. Brandon Glover was the pick of the bowlers for the Netherlands, bagging three wickets for just nine runs in 2 overs.
Reacting to the unreal result, former Proteas cricketer AB de Villiers took to Twitter and shared his thoughts. AB expressed his disappointment on South Africa’s loss and congratulated the Dutch.
“Ouch! Feel sorry for our boys. Well played, Holland,” tweeted De Villiers.
Ouch! Feel sorry for our boys. Well played Holland👏
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) November 6, 2022
De Villiers’ former teammate and currently a broadcaster Dale Steyn also praised Netherlands for their impressive performance in a crunch game.
“Well done Netherlands! So good today, congratulations,” Steyn wrote on Twitter.
Well done Netherlands!
So good today, congratulations
— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) November 6, 2022
Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar took a sly dig at South Africa, mentioning that he was backing Netherlands in the build-up to the one-sided encounter.
“Went for breakfast with a friend. Told him we’ll go Dutch. He almost choked at the proposition! #SAvsNED” tweeted Tendulkar.
Went for breakfast with a friend. Told him we'll go Dutch. He almost choked at the proposition!😋😋#SAvsNED pic.twitter.com/kDH1tN5nPJ
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) November 6, 2022
After the game, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma expressed his disappointment, stating his side lost wickets at crucial times and admitted the Dutch team played better than them.
“Very disappointing. We really played well before this game. We knew it was a must-win game, and again we faltered when it mattered. Hard one to swallow for the guys. We had the confidence and the belief to get to the knockouts. You can pick out a lot of things when you lose that way. Firstly myself with the toss, winning the toss and bowling first. Wasn’t ideal to let them off to a start and let them score 158. With the bat, we just got stuck, similar to the Pakistan game. We lost wickets at crucial times. The wicket maybe got a bit hard, but they used the dimensions of the ground a lot better than we did. From all of us, just wasn’t good enough,” said Bavuma in the post-match presentation.
