Turning dreams into reality: How a former Uber Eats employee and an ex-Protea put a dagger through South Africa's heart

Lightening has struck twice. Less than a year after the Netherlands stunned South Africa at the 2022 T20 World Cup, they have done it again. The opposition was same, and the occasion bigger – the 50-over World Cup – but the enormity of the stage wasn't going to pull the Dutch down as they registered a comprehensive 38-run win to pull off an encore against the Proteas and register the second big upset of this World Cup. As Nasser Hussain pointed out, South Africa were double-dutched, and even though their road to the semifinals hasn't fallen apart yet, this one is going to sting.

Just to put into perspective as to just how big this victory is, some of the Netherlands cricketers have corporate jobs because of lack of playing opportunities on the big stage. They cannot live their dreams or have the inspiration or support to play at the highest level consistently. Paul van Meekeren, who picked 2/40 in nine overs, picked up a job as a delivery boy at Uber Eats when the 2021 T20 World Cup, originally scheduled to be played in October-November of 2020, was postponed to next year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Should've been playing cricket today. Now I'm delivering Uber eats to get through the winter months. Funny how things change. Hahaha, keep smiling people," Van Meekeren's old tweet went viral moments after Netherlands raised their first win of the World Cup.

Van Meekeren is no stranger to playing across various leagues. He has represented teams in the Caribbean Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League, County and at the Netherlands Under-19 level. But like many of his teammates, Van Meekeren has struggled to feature regularly in international cricket, because quite frankly, there aren't many. Netherlands have played 117 ODIs since making their debut in 1996, 16 of which have been this year including the qualifiers. After qualifying for the World Cup, they faced Pakistan immediately, having not played a single game due to washed-out warm-ups. And still challenged the Pakistan batters in Hyderabad. Until last year's T20 World Cup in Australia, most of these players had to cover their training expenses, and little has changed a year later.

Cut to Dharamsala, Van Meekeren's first wicket was an absolute peach to dismiss Aiden Markram. The ball pitched on middle and moved just about enough to clip the top of the batter's off-stump in a dream dismissal, which reduced South Africa to 42/3 in their chase of 246. As Logan Van Beek continued to chip away, sending five Proteas batters back with just 89 on the board, Van Meekeren returned to grab his second by cleaning up Marco Jansen and put the Netherlands within sniffing distance of a famous win.

The return of the ex

Before first representing Netherlands in 2015, Roelof Van der Merwe had played 13 ODIs and T20Is for South Africa since his debut in 2009. But after missing out on a World Cup berth in 2011, Van der Merwe switched allegiance from his motherland. On Tuesday at the HPCA Stadium, playing his fifth ODI for the country, Van der Merwe played an instrumental role with both bat and ball to pierce a dagger through the heart of the Proteas.

At 38, Van der Merwe was equally agile on the field but it was his explosive batting down the order, and then some old school left-arm spin that played a role in the capitulation of South Africa. At 140/7, Netherlands' hopes of breaching 200 was in serious jeopardy before he and his captain Scott Edwards put on a partnership for the ages – 105 runs. While Edwards took his time playing anchor to remain unbeaten on 78 off 69 balls, van der Merwe blasted 29 off 19 including three fours and a six to knock the stuffing out of the Proteas. Later, with the ball, he bamboozled South Africa captain Temba Bavuma with an arm ball that crashed onto the stumps, before forcing Rassie van der Dussen to reverse sweep the ball to backward point to trigger panic within the South African camp at 44/4 in 12 overs. The two guys who missed the World Cup Qualifiers earlier this year, had caused all sorts of chaos.

Last year, during the T20 World Cup, van der Dussen had taken a blinder of a catch – quite possibly the catch of the tournament – to dismiss David Miller when South Africa needed to knock down 47 off 29. Van der Merwe sprinted backwards from short fine leg and completed 'the catch that won Netherlands the game'. And to think that van der Merwe shouldn't even have played that game – he had strained a facet joint in his back which only aggravated when he went out to bat at No. 11 against Sri Lanka.

That passage of play summed up Netherlands' never-say-die spirit which reverberated in Dharamsala on a cold Tuesday night, yet delivering the Dutch another moment under the sun.