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Duminy, du Plessis mark return with 84-run victory

JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis marked their return to South Africa's national ODI team with a century and fifty respectively, to lead their team to an 84-run victory over Netherlands

ESPNcricinfo staff
31-May-2013
South Africa 341 for 3 (Duminy 150*, Ingram 82, du Plessis 62*) beat Netherlands 257 for 9 (Szwarczynski 98, Peterson 4-67) by 84 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
JP Duminy scored an unbeaten 150 and Faf du Plessis' hit a quickfire fifty on their return to international cricket after injury breaks, thus helping South Africa to an 84-run win in the one-off ODI against Netherlands in Amstelveen. JP Duminy had not played any competitive cricket since the Brisbane Test last November due to an Achilles tendon injury, while du Plessis was ruled out midway through the ODI series in March against Pakistan with back trouble.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first. Alviro Petersen was returning to the ODI team for the first time since January 2012, getting a call-up after Graeme Smith was ruled out of the upcoming Champions Trophy due to injury. Petersen was unable, however, to set his stall as he was dismissed early for just 6, edging to Peter van Borren off the bowling of Mudassar Bukhari. With the score on 38, fellow opener Hashim Amla was caught behind by Wesley Barresi off Paul van Meekeren.
Any buoyancy Netherlands gained from those two wickets was soon overshadowed when Colin Ingram and JP Duminy dug their heels in to consolidate. The pair put together a match-changing 151-run stand for the third wicket over the course of 28.5 overs to help steady the innings and build-up to a voluminous ending. Ingram finally fell to Bukhari after being caught by Ahsan Malik for 82. Faf du Plessis was sent in next, and together with Duminy, who passed a 100 in the process, put on a further 152 runs in the remaining 13.1 overs.
This was a critical partnership for South Africa, and ended up being a match-clinching one at that, as the duo went at 11.54 runs an over - prior to this the match was rumbling along at just over five runs an over. The final five overs of the innings produced 98 runs. A total of 16 boundaries, including 12 sixes, were hit in those latter overs by the pair. South Africa finally finished on 341 for 3.
Netherlands started steadily enough, with the openers putting on 43 runs for the first wicket, before both batsmen were dismissed on the same score. South Africa continued to pick up wickets, and were firmly ahead all through despite Peter van Borren and Szwarczynski putting on 70 runs for the fifth wicket. With an asking rate escalating out of control, Netherlands simply had too much to do, as Borren fell two-runs shy of a half-century, and Szwarczynski missed out on what would have been a well-deserved maiden ODI ton. Netherlands eventually finished the innings on 257 for 9.