The Proteas crushed West Indies by nine wickets in their T20 World Cup Super Eights match.
South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl first at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The red soil surface was expected to provide steep resilience early, with spin becoming a factor as it dried out. Historically, 53% of wickets at the venue have fallen to slow deliveries.
The Proteas got off to a difficult start. Keshav Maharaj surprisingly opened, conceding 17 in the first over, while Marco Jansen gave away 12 in the next as West Indies raced to 29 after two overs. Jansen’s plan to swing the ball away from the right-handers proved costly, allowing the batters to free their arms.
Aiden Markram turned to Kagiso Rabada, who struck with his second ball – a long ball from outside that found Shai Hope’s lead (16 off 6). Shimron Hetmyer was dropped the next ball but fell to Maharaj at midwicket two deliveries later, leaving West Indies 31-2 after 2.5 overs.
Lungi Ngidi recovered from a wayward start to remove Brandon King before Roston Chase found himself on his stumps on the final ball of the over.
At 43-4 after four overs, the Windies were under pressure. Sherfane Rutherford briefly countered with a six off Corbin Bosch, but skied a long delivery off Quinton de Kock shortly afterwards.
Rovman Powell then removed Dewald Brevis off Ngidi, and when Matthew Forde holed out to Ryan Rickelton, West Indies were 83-7 after 10.2 overs.
Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd led a stunning battle, targeting Jansen (0-50) and Maharaj (0-43). Their stand of 89 runs off 57 balls set a new T20I record for the eighth wicket. Shepherd hit a maiden half-century (52 off 37), while Holder made 49 off 31.
Excellent death overs from Ngidi and Bosch conceded just 13 runs, including Holder’s run-out. Ngidi (3-30), Rabada (2-22) and Bosch (2-31) impressed but West Indies still recovered to post a competitive 176-8 in 20 overs.
Led by Proteas captain Aiden Markram, the Proteas managed to put up 53 in 5 overs. SA became the first team in the tournament to have more than three opening partnerships of over 50 in the tournament so far.
They scored 69 in the powerplay, Markram contributing 43* from 20 and De Kock 25* from 15.
De Kock managed to score 47 off 24 balls at a strike rate of 195.83 (4 fours, 4 sixes), as Chase guided his man, the left-hander, to long-on. SA were 95-1 after 8 overs.
Markram brought up his 14th career half-century and third of the tournament in just 27 balls.
The skipper got the Proteas over the line with the help of Ryan Rickelton. Markram finished on 78 off 45 balls (6 fours, 4 sixes) with a strike rate of 178.26. Rickelton finished with 45 off 28 balls (4 fours, 2 sixes) at a strike rate of 160.71.
Their partnership of 82 off 50 balls took South Africa to a nine-wicket victory with 23 balls remaining
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