WESTBURY, New York — David Miller bailed South Africa out of deep trouble against the Netherlands with a clutch innings to win their Twenty20 World Cup clash by four wickets on Saturday.
Miller’s unbeaten 59 off 51 balls, with four sixes and three boundaries, rescued South Africa from 12-4 in the fifth over.
This was after the Netherlands was restricted to 103-9.
The Proteas were made to sweat hard before Miller and Tristan Stubbs, with 33, saved the day for them to reach 106-6 with seven balls remaining.
The Netherlands was going for a hat trick of wins against South Africa in World Cups, after winning their T20 in 2022 and one-day international in 2023.
Chasing a paltry 104 for victory, South Africa’s big T20 hitters failed.
Quinton de Kock was run out for a duck after a mixup with opening partner Reeza Hendricks, who was bowled for 3.
Aiden Markram was caught behind playing down the leg side; the umpire’s review went against him. He was out for a three-ball duck.
Hard-hitting Heinrich Klaasen holed out for 4, and Dutch medium-pacer Vivian Kingma finished his four overs with 2-12.
Miller and Stubbs put on a cautious 65 off 72 balls on a challenging pitch.
Stubbs was caught in the 17th over as South Africa edged closer to the finish. Marco Jansen was dismissed for a golden duck in the next over and the situation tensed up again.
But Miller held his nerve to see the Proteas home to their second win in two games in Group D.
Earlier, pacer Ottneil Baartman grabbed 4-11 in four overs as the Netherlands was down to 48-6 in 11.5 overs.
Sybrand Engelbrecht scored 40 off 45 balls to anchor the Dutch, and Logan Van Beek scored 23 runs to push the total past 100.
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
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