Dutch ready to ‘beat any side’ after win over Proteas

DHARAMSALA, India: The Netherlands are confident they “can beat any side” after a shock win over South Africa, with skipper Scott Edwards eyeing a spot in the World Cup semi-finals. 

The Dutch stunned South Africa by 38 runs in a rain-reduced 43-overs-a-side contest in Dharamsala on Tuesday for their first win over a Test-playing nation at cricket´s 50-overshowpiece event.

Edwards led from the front with an unbeaten 78 to steer the Orange army -- ranked 14th in men´s ODIs -- to 245-8 before they bowled out third-placed South Africa for 207. “I suppose we go into every game with our plans and our ways that we´re going to try and win the game,” Edwards told reporters after the win.

“For us, it´s just about playing our best brand of cricket and we feel like if we play well enough on the day, we can beat any side.”

The Dutch, whose only World Cup wins have come over Namibia in 2003 and Scotland in 2007, beat a South African team coming off big wins over Sri Lanka and five-time winners Australia.

But Tuesday was not the first time they have shocked South Africa at a global event, having bested the Proteas at last year´s T20 World Cup.

The win has moved them up one spot from the bottom to ninth in the 10-team World Cup table, with the top four advancing to the semi-finals. “South Africa is obviously a very strong side and they´ll be close to that semi-final spot. If we want to be amongst it, we´ve got to beat sides like this,” Edwards said. “I think after qualifying we were pretty quick to set our minds to what we wanted to do at this tournament,” he added.