4 lower ranked teams to have beaten South Africa in Cricket

Overview

• Zimbabwe beat South Africa in the ODI World Cup 1999 by runs, thanks to Neil Johnson's all-round performance
• The Netherlands have beaten South Africa twice in the ICC tournaments and nearly beat them in two other instances in major tournaments
• Namibia is the most recent team to beat South Africa, while Ireland beat them twice in bilateral matches

Cricket is not just a Gentleman's game, but is also a game of huge uncertainties. On a given day, a team can beat any of their opponents, irrespective of the rankings. The result of a match depends sheerly on the way the players give their everything on a given day. The past records and the strength of the teams on the paper might not matter. 

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Cricket has witnessed several moments where lower ranked teams have beaten higher ranked teams. A cricket powerhouse today, India, created its legacy in 1983 when they beat the West Indies cricket team in the final of the ODI World Cup and never looked back. Such massive wins can change the total scenario of a sport and a nation.

South Africa is one of the top cricket teams in the world. Barring the period in the 1970s and the 1980s, when they were banned from international cricket, South Africa remained one of the top 5 teams in cricket for a major part since the post World War era. Hence, a lower ranked team beating them in any format in the period is a big deal.

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4 lower ranked teams to have beaten South Africa in Cricket

Namibia

Namibia is the latest team to have joined the elite league of cricket teams to have beaten South Africa in a cricket team. The Namibia Cricket Ground, which was inaugurated to host the ODI World Cup 2027, hosted an one-off T20 match between Namibia and South Africa. Led by Ruben Trumpelmann's performance with useful contributions from others, Namibia beat SA by 4 wickets.

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Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe pulled off a sensational win in the ODI World Cup 1999, a period when they had their best team and South Africa was among the best teams in the world. Zimbabwe posted 233 runs on the board in Chelmsford, thanks to Neil Johnson's 76(117). Zimbabwe successfully defended the total on the back of Johnson's 3/27, aa they beat SA by 48 runs.

Ireland

Ireland is one of the fewer teams to have beaten South Africa on multiple instances. Although the European team hasn't beaten the Proteas in a major tournament, they have 2 wins in ODI bilaterals. The first of them came in Dublin in 2021, when Ireland beat SA by 43 runs. In Abu Dhabi in 2024, Ireland achieved the feat yet again by claiming a 69-run win.

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Netherlands

No other lower ranked team has given multiple shockers to South Africa like Netherlands has. The first such instance was in the 2014 T20 World Cup, where they lost to SA by just 6 runs. Even in the 2024 T20 World Cup, the Dutch men nearly pulled off a win over the African team.

Netherlands' biggest wins have come against the Proteas. The first of those was in the T20 World Cup 2022, where Netherlands beat SA by 13 runs in Adelaide and knocked them out of the tournament. A year later in the ODI World Cup 2023 in Dharamshala, the Dutch men beat the Proteas again by 38 runs in a rain-affected game.