There was no nervous ending for South Africa as they kept their cool under pressure to beat the West Indies by three wickets in a rain-shortened Super Eights match in Antigua and booked a place in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
The rain-delayed match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium swung between the two teams on Sunday, but ultimately the night belonged to South Africa who chased down the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern adjusted target (DLS method) with five balls to spare.
South Africa asked West Indies to bat first and restricted the hosts to 135-8 in 20 overs, with left-hand spinner Tabraiz Shamsi picking up three wickets for 27 runs in his four overs. Roston Chase was the top scorer with 52 points.
Rain stopped play early in South Africa’s chase and their target was readjusted to 123 from 17 overs when play resumed.
The Proteas looked on course for a comfortable victory when captain Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs fought together, until Alzarri Joseph took out Markram.
Supported by a partisan home crowd, the men in brown rallied to keep the pressure on the visitors.
West Indies continued to break South Africa’s partnerships at regular intervals, but a poor one from spinner Gudakesh Motie, who gave away 20 runs, swung the match in the Proteas’ favor.
The nervy nature of the chase and South Africa’s failures in the latter stages of the World Cups meant the pressure was on their lower-order batters as the rest of the team watched from the dugout.
But Shamsi, who was named player of the match, said there was “no pressure” on the team and plenty of smiles as Marco Jansen sealed South Africa’s victory with a six over the bowling from Obed McCoy in the last over.
“There was no pressure, no crazy thoughts in the dugout, even when the rain interrupted the match and we found ourselves in tricky situations,” he said after the match.
“We were all very calm.”
Markram said there was “a lot of relief” in the South African camp to have reached their first T20 World Cup semi-final in 10 years, but he urged his team to “do (our) best semi-final match.
South Africa qualifies as the winner of Group 2 and will face the second-placed team from Group 1.
