Sybrand Engelbrecht, a cricket player from the Netherlands, has declared his retirement from international cricket in the wake of his team’s 2024 T20 World Cup first-round defeat. The Netherlands crashed out of the competition without making it to the Super Eight stage after their loss to Sri Lanka on Monday, June 17.
The Dutch squad came very near to winning against Sri Lanka, but a victory would not have been enough to qualify them because Bangladesh had a higher net run rate than them. In the last game of his international career, they lost by an overwhelming 83 runs, and Engelbrecht scored just 11 off 9 balls.
Engelbrecht made his debut in 2023 and has played in 24 matches for the European nation, 12 T20Is and 12 ODIs. He has collected 665 runs and five wickets in those matches. He participated in all four of the Netherlands’ T20 World Cup matches, which is noteworthy. Their lone victory in the tournament came from his 14-run contribution in a close chase against Nepal.
With a magnificent performance against Sri Lanka, Sybrand Engelbrecht ends.
The 35-year-old was unable to turn his previous competition into a memorable one. The right-hander did not translate his strong starts into significant runs in nearly every game. His best performance against Bangladesh, where the team lost by 25 runs, was 33 off 22 balls.
But in his final match against Sri Lanka, Engelbrecht made a spectacular play close to the boundary line that stole the show. An all-arounder for Sri Lanka named Angelo Mathews blasted a full toss to the deep mid-wicket boundary on the second ball of the 17th over. Engelbrecht realised the ball would just sail over the ropes and leaped full stretch to retrieve it, flicking it back into the field and over the boundary cushions
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Notably, Engelbrecht was the leading run-getter for the side in the 2023 ODI World Cup. The South African-born cricketer amassed 300 runs in eight innings at an average of 37.50 at a strike-rate of 66.66, including two half-centuries. He was instrumental in the Netherlands’ impressive campaign in India with his batting and fielding prowess.
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