MILLER, BAARTMAN THE HEROES AS PROTEAS GO TWO-FROM-TWO AT T20 WORLD CUP

A miserly four-for from Ottniel Baartman and unbeaten fifty from David Miller made all the difference as South Africa overcame the Netherlands by four wickets on Saturday in New York.

When the Proteas found themselves 12/4 chasing 104 for their second-straight victory of this T20 World Cup, the green-and-gold’s dugout undoubtedly thought back two years to when the Dutch ended their 2022 campaign with a narrow 13-run defeat.

This time, however, a 65-run partnership between Tristan Stubbs and David Miller, followed by a late flurry of boundaries from the latter when Stubbs departed, which took him to an unbeaten 59, guided the Proteas to victory.

Earlier, Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to field first.

Both teams were unchanged so Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada returned to the lines and lengths which troubled Sri Lanka six days ago and, again, the Proteas reaped the benefits.

Jansen accounted for the talented Michael Levitt (0 off three) three balls into the match, Baartman claimed his first, Max O’Dowd (2 off six) caught by Jansen himself. When Jansen then bowled Vikramjit Singh (12 off 17, 1x4) in the fifth over, the Dutch found themselves 17/3.

SA-born Sybrand Engelbrecht and experienced campaigner Bas de Leede then came together to try steady their innings, but it proved to only be a 15-run partnership before the De Leede (6 off 16) became Anrich Nortje’s first victim of the day, caught by Miller.

Dutch captain Scott Edwards (10 off 9, 1x6) tried to up the ante a bit, before his opposite number, Markram, ran him out. Two balls later Teja Nidamanuru (0 off one) also departed, Nortje having him caught by Heinrich Klaasen.

Engelbrecht finally found a teammate who could hang around with him in Logan van Beek and the pair put on 54 off 45 balls before Engelbrecht finally departed in the final over for a disciplined 40 off 46 balls (2x4, 1x6) – Baartman picking up his second.

Tim Pringle (0 off 2) and Van Beek (23 off 22, 3x4) also fell in the final over as Baartman ended with incredible figures of 4/11, including 17 dot balls. Jansen (2/20) and Nortje (2/19) and also been economical during their spells.

The Netherlands in turn had scraped their way to 103/9.

Bad luck befell the Proteas from the first ball of their innings, when Reeza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock had a communication breakdown and the latter was run-out for a duck without facing. Hendricks (3 off 10) himself was castled by Van Beek in the second over; Markram (0 off three) followed in the next over caught behind by Edwards off Vivian Kingma’s bowling. He also accounted for Klaasen (4 off seven), caught by Pringle, to leave the Proteas chase in disarray.

Stubbs and Miller then came together and rode their luck on the tricky pitch, and patiently accumulated before Stubbs (33 off 37, 1x4, 1x6) tried to loosen the shackles in the 17th over, only to be caught in the deep by Van Beek of De Leede.

This left the Proteas 27 short with just over three overs left. Jansen joined Miller at the crease but despite his talent it was clear that the result now hinged on the left-hander. Even more so when Van Beek bowled Jansen (3 off five) but the Paarl Royals captain came up trumps to hand South Africa the win with seven balls remaining.

All images courtesy: ICC/Getty