Dutch batsman Sybrand Engelbrecht has announced his retirement from international cricket. The 35-year-old made his last appearance in international cricket on Monday (June 17) when Netherlands faced Sri Lanka in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
Netherlands were eliminated from the T20 World Cup after losing the match against Sri Lanka by 83 runs. In his last international match, the South African-born cricketer scored 11 runs. He, however, managed to attract a lot of attention on social media for making an outrageous save on the field. The impressive save in his last game was perhaps a fitting send-off for a cricketer who initially caught everyone’s attention only for his fielding skills.
In the 2008 Under-19 World Cup, Sybrand Engelbrecht had shocked the cricket world by taking a two-handed flying catch at backward point while playing for South Africa against Papua New Guinea. His career didn’t really pan out as he would have liked and he eventually decided to retire from all forms of cricket in 2016 to focus on his career in financial and project management.
Later in 2021, he moved to the Netherlands and his love for cricket was revived once again after he started playing it recreationally. It didn’t take long for Sybrand Engelbrecht to break into the Netherlands team as he was picked in their squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Sybrand Engelbrecht’s career in numbers:
Although Sybrand Engelbrecht represented South Africa at the Under-19 World Cup, he was unable to play for his senior team in international cricket. He finally made his international debut last year during the ODI World Cup match between Netherlands and New Zealand. Earlier this year, he made his T20I debut against Nepal.
In total, he represented the Netherlands in 12 ODIs and as many T20Is. In the 50-over format, he scored 385 ODI runs at an average of 35 with the help of two fifties, while in T20Is, he scored 280 T20I runs at an average of 31.11 and a strike rate of 132.70. . In the ongoing T20 World Cup, he was the leading run-scorer for Netherlands and ended his campaign with 98 runs.
