Twitter Reactions: Netherlands confirm ticket to India for World Cup 2023 with epic win against Scotland

Scotland had a great chance of making it to the upcoming ODI World Cup in 2023. They had a much better net run rate than the Netherlands, who were also in contention for the same spot. When the two sides clashed at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo in a virtual semi-final encounter on Thursday, July 6, the tension was palpable.

Dutch captain Scott Edwards won the toss and elected to bowl first without any hesitation. Brandon McMullen starred with the bat, playing a fine knock of 106 off 110 balls. Scottish captain Richie Berrington also played a solid innings of 64 in 84 deliveries. Tomas Mackintosh (38 off 28) and Chris Greaves (18 off 15) provided the finishing touches to take Scotland to 277/9 in 50 overs. Bas de Leede stood out for the Netherlands with the ball as he picked up five wickets for 52 runs in his 10 overs.

The fact that the Netherlands had to chase the target in 44 overs to cross Scotland's net run rate, made Richie Berrington's men the favourites to board the flight to India. However, the Netherlands were not going to go down without a fight. They showed how good they are as a chasing side when they managed to reach West Indies' score of 374, earlier in the tournament.

At one stage, the Dutch were reeling at 108/4 in 23.3 overs. It seemed that the Netherlands will fail to win the match, let alone chase the score in 44 overs. However, de Leede formed crucial partnerships with his captain Edwards and Saqib Zulfiqar to take them close to the target. De Leede eventually departed for a majestic 123 runs in 92 balls after Safyaan Sharif ran him out. Post that Van Beek scored the winning run as his team reached the target in 42.5 overs to book the ticket to India for the ODI World Cup to be held in October-November.

Here's how fans reacted to Netherlands' thrilling win against Scotland"