Captain fantastic Scott Edwards opens up on Dutch delight in Dharamsala

Scott Edwards, the Netherlands skipper, reflected on his side’s performance in the ODI World Cup match against South Africa. The Netherlands outplayed Temba Bavuma and Co. by 38 runs in Dharamsala to register their first win in the ongoing tournament. The win marked their first over a Test-playing nation in five appearances at the marquee event.

Edwards stated that he feels his team is in the right direction while expressing his happiness after registering the first win. The wicketkeeper-batter added that the win gives more confidence to them when they head to the remaining matches.

"We came into this tournament with high expectations, we feel like we're playing good cricket, we've got a lot of good players… but in saying that, we know that there are nine other very good sides here. So, yeah, very excited to get our first win out of the way after three games and hopefully a few more to come,” Edwards was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. 

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"That's a massive boost for us. In both the first two games, we were in decent positions, but we sort of fell away through the middle. Nice that we could put a few partnerships together at the end [against South Africa] and get ourselves to a total which we thought could be competitive," he added.

Edwards came to bat at no. 7 when the Netherlands were reeling at 82/5 after being asked to bat first. The 27-year-old managed to create a 64-run partnership with Roelof van der Merwe for the eighth wicket, putting the Netherlands 204/4 after the latter was dismissed for 29 runs in the 40th over. 

The captain then had a 41-run stand with Aryan Dutt for the ninth wicket. Dutt hit an unbeaten 23 in nine balls and took Netherlands to 245 for 8 in 43 overs. Edwards, on the other hand, smashed an unbeaten 78 off 69 deliveries, including ten boundaries and one maximum and went on to earn the Player of the Match award.