South Africa continue winning run with nine-wicket victory over Windies

Lungi Ngidi and captain Aiden Markram starred with ball and bat respectively, to propel South Africa to a dominant nine-wicket victory over West Indies here on Thursday in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

In a clash of the last two unbeaten teams in the tournament, South Africa made light work of the Men in Maroon to essentially book their spot in the semifinals.

The win, their second in the Super Eights stage, was set up a superb spell of fast bowling by Nigidi and Kagiso Rabada that reduced West Indies to 83 for seven, before a record eighth wicket partnership between Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd helped them get up to 176 for eight in their 20 overs.

Markram then continued his impressive run of form in the competition by blasting an unbeaten 82 off 46 balls with seven fours and four sixes, and along with Quinton de Kock, who scored 47 off 24 balls and Ryan Rickelton. who finished on 45 not out, saw the Proteas coast to 177 for one in 16.1 overs.

The Windies’ spectacular batting collapse seemed unlikely after openers Shai Hope and Brandon King clobbered 29 runs off the opening two overs after being sent in to bat at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

Hope hit left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj for two sixes and a four in the opening over that leaked 17 runs, although he was lucky to survive the second of his maximums when Dewald Brevis held on to the catch but fell over the boundary ropes in the process.

King then hit pacer Marco Jansen for three fours in the ensuing over to give the Windies a speedy start on a good batting pitch.

However, Rabada’s introduction in the third over completely changed the complexion of the match.

He had Hope caught behind with his second ball as he flashed at an outswinger but could only watch in anguish as Corbin Bosch put down Shimron Hetmyer at mid off the next delivery.

The dropped chance proved not to be costly though, as Rabada had him caught at midwicket two balls later to reduce the Windies to 31 for two.

Ngidi was driven through the offside by King for back-to-back fours in the fourth over, but rebounded by having him caught behind two balls later.

He then struck again with the last ball of the over when Roston Chase inside edged onto his stumps to leave the Windies in disarray at 43 for four at the end of six overs.

Sherfane Rutherford was dropped on three, but added just eight more runs to his total before miscuing a pull off Bosch to be caught by the wicketkeeper. It got worse for the Windies when Rovman Powell smashed Ngidi straight into the hands of cover and Matthew Forde was caught at deep backward square, to see them slump to 83 for seven in the 11th over.

Holder and Shepherd ensured the West Indies got up to a reasonable total during a T20I record partnership of 89 for the eighth wicket.

Holder made 49 off 31 balls with four fours and three sixes before being run out off the penultimate ball of the innings, while Shepherd scored his maiden T20I half century, hitting an unbeaten 52 off 37 balls with four sixes and three fours.

For South Africa, Ngidi took 3-30, Rabada 2-22 and Bosch 2-31.

Markram and de Kock then launched a relentless attack on the Windies’ bowling attack to give South Africa the perfect launch pad.

Brandon King put down a tough catch diving to his right at cover to dismiss Markram when he was 23, and it proved to be a costly miss as the openers raced to 69 without loss after the first six overs.

De Kock seemed on course for a half century before Chase had him caught at long on to make the score 95 for one after eight overs, but by then the damage had been done.

Rickelton joined his captain at the crease and the two shared an unbroken partnership of 82 to complete a straightforward run chase.

(CMC)