Gqeberha — The South African Invitation XI breezed past the Netherlands in their only warm-up match ahead of their one-day international series against the Proteas.
The Dutch did not field their full-strength team as Roelof van der Merwe and Colin Ackermann missed out, despite their vast experience of SA conditions.
Eathan Bosch made light work of the Dutch batters as he continuously beat the outside edge with the new ball. The Netherlands couldn't tell which side of the wicket the ball was going to swing whenever Bosch had ball in hand.
Eventually, Bosch got the edge of left-hander Vikramjit Singh and Sine Qeshile did the rest behind the stumps. In his very next over, Bosch took the wicket of Musa Ahmad who was caught by Lesego Senokwane at mid-wicket. The youngster finished with figures of 3/20 in his 10 overs.
Tshepo Moreki, Mihlali Mpongwana, Evan Jones, Senuran Muthusamy and Wihan Lubbe grabbed a wicket apiece and the South Africans bowled the Netherlands out for 207 runs in 50 overs.
In reply, the middle order carried the SA Invitation XI close enough to the target for the lower order to chase it down. Lubbe (46) and Matthew Breetzke (33) put together the only fifty-plus partnership for the hosts.
Coming in at No 7 with the score on 164/5, Muthusamy (27 not out) guided the hosts to a seven-wicket victory with 14 overs to spare.
Openers Tony de Zorzi (24) and Lesego Senokwane (27) looked in good touch and at were ease facing the Netherlands bowlers, despite putting together only 31 runs.
Jordan Hermann came in at No 3, following De Zorzi's departure. Hermann struck three boundaries for his 15 runs.
Scorecard
Netherlands: 207/10 (Edwards 38, S. Ahmad 33, Bosch 3/20, Lubbe 1/16)
South Africa Invitation XI: 208/7 (Lubbe 46, Breetzke 33, Klein 3/30, Kingma 2/51)
South Africa won by three wickets
IOL Sport