South Africa were handed their first defeat in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 as they suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of the Netherlands at Dharamsala’s Himachal Pradesh Cricket Academy Stadium on Tuesday and Proteas captain Temba Bavuma has reacted to the loss.
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The Netherlands scored 245-8 in the rain-affected fixture as captain Scott Edwards led from the front with his unbeaten half-century. He scored 69-ball 78 with the help of 10 fours and a six.
Veteran spinner Roelof van der Merwe and Aryan Dutt played crucial knocks of 29 and 23 respectively.
In chase of 246-run target, the Proteas were dismissed for 207. Swashbuckling left-handed batter David Miller top-scored with 43 off 52 balls with four boundaries and a maximum to his name.
Keshav Maharaj played a fighting knock of 40, but it wasn’t enough for the side to register a win and stay unbeaten in the tournament.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma, who scored 16 runs in the match, said the defeat would and should hurt the team. The frontman showed confidence in team putting the loss behind them and making a comeback.
“You got to let the emotion kind of seep in,” he said. “Don’t think there is any point in trying to forget what’s happened. It is going to hurt, it should hurt. But then you come back tomorrow, you wake up and we get back onto the journey.
“Our campaign is not over by any stretch of the imagination, but you got to feel the emotion of today and come back tomorrow with the head held up.”
The batter said the side’s poor fielding contributed to the team’s defeat to the Netherlands.
“We were clinical against Australia, but the challenge was always to come back and replicate that performance. The fielding wasn’t up to standard. Again if you look at the way we fielded against Australia compared to today, definitely not the same standard. Those are conversations we need to have. The guys need to answer the questions themselves where mentally they were. That’s definitely not the standard we’d like to show from a fielding point of view,” he said.
South Africa would be looking to return to winning ways when they play defending champions England, who lost to Afghanistan by 69 runs in their previous game, at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on October 31st.
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