Cricket : South Africa vs Netherlands

As part of their preparations for the ICC Champions Trophy, the South African team stopped over in the Netherlands and played an ODI against the Dutch national side. 

Out of a population of approximately 16 million, about 6,500 play cricket. Compared to football, which has 1 million registered players in the Netherlands, cricket is a relatively unknown sport here. So this was a great opportunity to introduce some colleagues from work to this great game. Most had heard of cricket, but almost none of them knew what the game is about or what the rules are. This video clip had done the rounds at the office and was about as close as most had come to seeing cricket...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEH4ahCCrJo

So basically they have no idea at all! But interestingly they all knew that the Dutch national side had beaten England in an important tournament: 

http://www.espncricinfo.com/netherlands/engine/match/355991.html

And they were therefore convinced that based on that great win back in 2009 the Dutch team must surely be quite good!

OK, back to this weeks game. I managed to convince 15 of my colleagues that it was a good idea to take a day off work and watch a game of cricket. But the catch was that I would first have to teach them about the game. So lunch time on Tuesday included a quick 20 minute presentation on cricket followed by a short game out on the lawn outside the office. 

They were now prepared for the big game.

On the day South Africa won the toss and decided to bat first. The innings got off to a bit of a slow start and the South Africans lost 2 early wickets. It was then up to Duminy and Ingram to get the innings back on track, which is exactly what they did. With the last 10 overs going for 144 runs the South Africans managed to end the innings in a great position with 341 for 3. 

The Dutch side then came in ad decided that they were going to go for it. They got off to a great start and were 36 without loss after 6 overs. They managed to maintain a fairly good momentum and at the end of the 40th over were on 199 for 6. South Africa at the same stage were 197 for 3. However having to score 143 runs from the last 10 overs proved too much for the Dutch side and they ended up all out for 258. South Africa won by 83 runs! 

But at the end of the day the result didn't matter. I now have 15 colleagues that know a little bit more about cricket, that have realised that beer plays a more important role than tea, and that would all happily spend another day in the sun next to a cricket field eating, drinking, chatting, and maybe even watching a bit of cricket.