Netherlands captain Scott Edwards was proud of his team after they stunned South Africa in Tuesday's World Cup match and said they went into the tournament with the dream of reaching the last four.

The only non-test playing nation in the tournament pulled off a major upset against the previously unbeaten South Africa, earning a famous victory a year after beating the Proteas in the T20 World Cup.

Edwards led by example with a captain's knock of 78 not out that helped the Dutch side overcome a top order collapse and post a total that remained beyond South Africa's reach.

"Proud of the group. Putting in that performance and being able to play my part is nice," Edwards, named player-of-the-match, said.

"When we came into the tournament we wanted to have a chance at playing semi-finals and if you want to do that you've got to beat teams.

"Obviously South Africa are probably one of the favourites the way they are playing so it is a big win for us."

The Netherlands had slumped to 82-5 in the 21st over before Edwards raised 64 quick runs with Roelof van der Merwe (29) and Aryan Dutt smacked three sixes in his 23 not out off nine balls to help them to a competitive 245-8.

On his partnership with Van der Merwe, who also claimed two wickets in the match, Edwards said: "He is good fun to bat with. He runs hard and hits it in quite strange areas, which is good to watch and I'm sure it is from the outside as well."

His South Africa counterpart Temba Bavuma said they let the Dutch side off the hook.

"At 112-6 we didn't want to let them get over 200 and we definitely dropped the ball there," Bavuma said.

"We'll have to let the emotion seep in. There is no point trying to forget what happened.

"It will hurt and it should hurt. Tomorrow we'll get back on the journey, our campaign is by no means over."