There was no nervy ending for South Africa as they saved their cool underneath stress to beat West Indies by three wickets in a rain-shortened Tremendous Eights recreation in Antigua and booked a spot within the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 semifinals.
The rain-delayed match on the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium swayed between each side on Sunday, however in the long run, the evening belonged to South Africa who chased down the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS technique) adjusted goal with 5 balls to spare.
South Africa requested West Indies to bat first and restricted the hosts to 135-8 in 20 overs, with left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi choosing up three wickets for 27 runs in his 4 overs. Roston Chase top-scored with 52 runs.
Rain stopped play early on in South Africa’s chase and their goal was readjusted to 123 from 17 overs when play resumed.
The Proteas appeared on observe for a snug win when captain Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs had been batting collectively, till Alzarri Joseph eliminated Markram.
With a partisan residence crowd backing them, the lads in maroon rallied to maintain the stress on the guests.
West Indies saved breaking South African partnerships at common intervals, however one poor over from spinner Gudakesh Motie, who gave away 20 runs, swayed the sport again in favour of the Proteas.
The nervous nature of the chase, and South Africa’s historical past of falling brief within the latter phases of world cups, meant the stress was on their lower-order batters as the remainder of the squad watched on from the dugout.
However Shamsi, who was named participant of the match, mentioned there was “no stress” on the staff and loads of smiles when Marco Jansen sealed South Africa’s win with a six off Obed McCoy’s bowling within the final over.
“There was no stress, no loopy ideas within the dugout even when rain interrupted the sport and we bought into tough conditions,” he mentioned after the match.
“We had been all very calm.”
Markram mentioned there was “a variety of aid” within the South African camp to have made it by means of to their first T20 World Cup semifinal in 10 years, however he urged his facet to “placed on [our] greatest recreation within the semifinal”.
South Africa undergo as Group 2 winners and can play the second-placed facet from Group 1.