Netherlands v South Africa

Tall Task for Netherlands
The seventh match of the World Cup 2007 was played at the Basseterre stadium in St. Kitts on Friday, March 16. This Group A match featured cricketing minnows Netherlands pitted against the heavyweights South Africa. Though, the result of the match was almost known even before the start of the match, everyone was interested to see the way the South Africans approached this game. Also, this was a great opportunity for the Netherlands to test their mettle against one of the best teams in the world.

Netherlands gets Lucky with the Toss
The luck seemed to be going the Netherlands way. After Match refree Ranjan Madugalle tossed the coin, the Dutch captain LP Van Troost was able to call it correctly and he elected to field with the hope that his bowlers could exploit upon the early morning freshness of the pitch. Troost’s decision surprised a few as it was expected that he would choose to bat first under bright and sunny conditions and post a total for the opposition to chase.

Stumbling Start
The match officials declared that the match would comprise 40 over for every innings as the match got off to a late start due to heavy overnight rain. After being sent out to bat, the South Africans did not get off to a good start. The South African opener, AB de Villiers was back in the pavilion without troubling the scorers. He was out for a duck on the very second ball of the first over. This boosted the confidence of the Dutch team and it raised the hopes of having a closer match than anticipated. At the end of the 5th over,South Africa were 4 for 1 wkt.

Proteas Excellence
Skipper Graeme Smith put on a solid second wicket partnership with Jacques Kallis. After making a well made half-century, Smith got out on a personal score of 67 of 59 balls at the South Africa scaore of 114(0vers boared 19 overs). The partnership between Smith and Kallis laid down the perfect platform for the South Africans from where they could accelerate. The Dutch team had clearly lost the initiative after this partnership.

Genius called Gibbs
After the fall of the skipper, one of the most flamboyant batsmen in the world walked up to the crease. Herschelle Gibbs, the dangerous stroke maker came in and took over from where Smith had left over. Gibbs literally tore apart the Dutch bowling and smashed all of them to all the corners of the Basterre stadium. The match witnessed history being created after Gibbs smashed South Africa at the score of 219 runs,each ball of the 30th over,boeled by Daanvan Bunge out of the ground for six for six sixes in an over.Gibbs eventually got out after making a blistering 72 runs of 40 balls.

Butchering Boucher
The South African hammering did not stop after the exit of Gibbs. It seemed as the Proteas wicket keeper; Mark Boucher was very inspired by the performance of Gibbs. Boucher went on to make the fastest half-century in the World Cup 50 off 21 balls(7 fours and 2 sixes)and remained unbeaten on 75. At the end of 40 overs, the South Africans had posted a mammoth total of 353 with the loss of just three wickets.

Doom for the Dutch
After such incredibly dominating performance by the South Africans in the first innings, the second innings remained a mere formality. It seemed that Netherlands had already given up and seemed to be focusing on occupying the crease and playing out their full quota of overs. The only bright spot in the Dutch innings was Ryan ten Doeschate who made a determined half-century only to be unfortunately run out on 57. The South African bowlers were at their usual clinical best to reduce Netherlands for a paltry total of 132 runs for the loss of 9 wickets after the end of 40 overs.

Best Win for South Africa
The South Africans defeated Netherlands by a gigantic margin of 221 runs. This was the biggest one-day win for the Proteas. Despite a century by Kallis and the fastest half-century by Boucher, the Man of the Match was awarded to the record maker, Herschelle Gibbs.

Apart from the record of sixers by Gibbs, there were several other records that were created during the match. The South Africans recorded the maximum number of 18 sixes . Yet another record was the three-century partnerships during innings in a ODI.
2nd wicket partnership of 114 runs.
3rd wicket partnership of 105 runs.
4th wicket partnership of 134 runs.