Afghanistan stunned the cricketing world 2 days back, when they defeated the defending world champions England. The first upset in the world cup had already left fans in shock, who were in for another surprise from Netherlands. The Dutch team, an associate nation defeated the strong contender for world cup, the South African team comfortably to pull off the second upset in this world cup. The victory has sent waves of joy back in Netherlands. What's even more special is the fact that this is South Africa's second consecutive defeat from Netherlands, after the latter emerged victorious over the former in 2022 T20 world cup.

The encounter of T20 world cup was a thriller, but today's victory by Dutch team was a clinical one. The team throughout the match showed great display of fighting spirit and intent to power them to a victory over one of the strongest sides. Once reeling for 82/5, it looked like Proteas are going to make merry out of this match. But Dutch skipper Scott Edwards had different plans as he took his team to a decent total of 243 runs. He single handedly turned the tide for the team, and gave bowlers a chance to defend the total, which they eventually did in style. Netherlands won the match, but there are few cricket experts terming this win as a fluke. Is really this moment a one odd win?

The answer is no. Yes, there are instances of one team having a good day and defeating a stronger team. But in this case, the hard earned victory is not a result of a one odd lucky day. It infact is a result of a process which the Netherlands followed from the past entire year. They had planned for this to happen, and they subsequently succeeded in doing so. It reflected in their team winning the World Cup qualifiers, and then playing quality cricket at the grandest event of the game. So what parameters did the team work on?

The answer is 'everything'. The tale of Netherlands cricket team is one of grit, immense dedication and unparalleled love and passion for the game. The associate nation has not been a constant member of ICC events. The sport is not much recognised in their country, which is a rather hockey and football fanatic. The players who play the game are not full time cricketers. Most of these are semi-professional players, who rely on some job for their livelihood. And yet, all of them bonded together over the dream of playing at the world cup.

And they took efforts as well as pride to do so. In order to engage in quality cricket, they firstly got few of their players to play for county cricket. In addition to this, they requested the BCCI to aid them by arranging matches of a lower level Indian or domestic team to help them adapt to the level. BCCI agreed to do so, and sent the Karnataka team led by Mayank Agarwal which toured Netherlands, thereby getting the exposure themselves, and providing insights to the Dutch team. A combination of playing in English domestic leagues and against Indian domestic teams helped them greatly.

Furthermore, they had the scarcity of grounds tallying to only 7 competitive turfs available. To make the most of these available options, they hired pitch curators from India to make pitches similar to subcontinent wickets. Going a step ahead, they officially announced the reward for Indian domestic and net bowlers to come and train with Dutch team in exchange of monetary rewards. They set no restrictions for it and allowed anyone who wishes to come. In a win win situation, the local net bowlers got much needed exposure to train with international athletes, and the Dutch team got used to Indian bowling technique on pitched similar to Indian wickets.

Lastly, after all these external aid, they imported players to help the team internally. The likes of Sybrand Engelbretch, Ackerman are South African players who never played for Protean team. The skipper Scott Edwards is himself from Tonga, and holds citizenship of Australia and Netherlands. The senior most member in the squad Van Der Merwe, has played international cricket for South Africa earlier. And all these players today contribute to Dutch team's success. Van Der Merwe's contribution to building the team, as well as guiding the team even on field is instrumental in the team's performance. All these factors, combined together with the passion and love these young Dutchmen have for the game, resulted in their massively improved quality of the game.

Which is why, one saw Netherlands team defeat South Africa in 2022 T20 world cup. In the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, it was Netherlands who denied West Indies an entry in the world cup. Their performance with association nations improved massively, and so did their game against test playing nations. Upping their ante, they posed a real threat to Pakistan in the initial half of first innings, and then went on to defeat Proteas. In process they scored 100 runs in last 10 overs against Proteas. They made a statement saying they are here to win. The same was said by their captain Edwards, who said they want to make it to the semis of the tournament, and are playing accordingly. Whether they will make it or not, only time will tell, but the love the team possesses for the game is commendable. And therefore, the win, was no way a fluke. And one might see many more wins from them going ahead in the tournament.