If we play our best kind of cricket, we can defeat any team: after shocking South Africa, Dutch skipper Scott Edwards

According to skipper Scott Edwards, the Netherlands have the ability to defeat any team in the current World Cup provided they play their finest style of cricket. The historic shock victory against South Africa was no fluke.

In their round-robin league match here on Tuesday, the Netherlands shocked South Africa by 38 runs, marking their first victory against a Test-playing team in World Cup history. Due to rain, the game was altered to a 43-over-a-side format.

“We enter every game with our strategies and ideas for attempting to win the game. We believe that if we play well enough on the day, we can defeat any team, so for us, it just comes down to playing our best brand of cricket, Edwards stated in the post-game news conference.

The victory was the Netherlands’ third 50-over World Cup triumph and their first in 16 years. In the 2003 competition in South Africa, they achieved their first win against Namibia. In the 2007 West Indies edition, they defeated Scotland to earn their second victory.

The Netherlands advanced to the main event in India via the qualifying round, and Edwards said his team did not go here only to fill up the roster.

“Yes, without a doubt. After qualifying, I believe we made a very swift decision about how we wanted to approach this competition. We didn’t come here only for enjoyment and amusement. We’re here to compete in cricket matches and give ourselves the greatest opportunity to advance, said Edwards.

“South Africa is undoubtedly a very formidable team; they will be in the running for a semifinal position. Therefore, we must defeat teams like these if we want to be among them, said the 27-year-old wicketkeeper.

Before Edwards himself produced a miraculous comeback by scoring an undefeated 78 off 69 balls to lead his team to a spirited 245 for eight, the Dutch were in trouble at 140 for seven in the 34th over. Then, in 42.5 overs, they bowled South Africa out for 207.

When questioned about what happened when he and the other batsmen were facing certain defeat, Edwards said, “As a group we pride ourselves on playing complete cricket, which means players who are coming in at number 8, 9, and 10 have just as much of the capacity to put up big partnerships.

However, when we were batting alongside them, our goal was just to give ourselves a chance to play harder later in the innings. Fortunately, Roelof van der Merwe and Aryan Dutt made some amazing cameo appearances to help us reach what we believed to be a par score.