South Africa glides past West Indies in the T20 World Cup in Dubai, thanks to Aiden Markram’s half-century
Aiden Markram hit a blazing unbeaten fifty as South Africa delivered an all-around effort to beat West Indies by eight wickets in the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup on Tuesday, bouncing back strongly from their first defeat. Both South Africa and the West Indies had a disappointing start to their Super 12 campaigns. While the Proteas were defeated by Australia by five wickets, the West Indies were defeated by England by six wickets. On October 30, South Africa will play Sri Lanka in their third Group 1 match, while the West Indies will face Bangladesh the day before.
South Africa survived Evin Lewis’ (56) first onslaught to restrict West Indies to 143 for eight, then rode on excellent batting performances from Markram (51 not out off 26), Rassie van der Dussen (43 not out off 51), and Reeza Hendricks (39) to easily chase down the goal with 10 balls to spare.
South Africa did not get off to the greatest of starts in their chase, losing skipper Temba Bavuma to a run-out early on. With a 57-run second-wicket stand, Hendricks, who replaced Quinton de Kock after he was dropped for refusing to take a knee against racism, and van der Dussen stabilised the batting.
Following Hendricks’ expulsion, van der Dussen and Markram led South Africa forward, reducing the equation to 44 runs off the final six overs. While van der Dussen kept one end up, Markram hit a game-winning shot to send South Africa home.
Markram hit two fours and four sixes in his innings.
Lewis had earlier hit a quickfire half-century before West Indies lost the plot and had to settle for a small total. West Indies got off to a flying start thanks to Lewis and Lendl Simmons (16). The pair put up a 73-run opening standoff 63 balls before West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals.
In the pairing, Lewis was responsible for the majority of the scoring. From the start, he demonstrated his aggressive attitude by hitting Kagiso Rabada for a boundary over backward point and then lofting the bowler straight over his head with the next ball.
After that, it was Aiden Markram’s time to face Lewis’ fury, as the batter hit two sixes and a four in the fifth over to score 18 runs. Lewis next hammered Anrich Nortje over mid-off, but the bowler then produced a thin edge from Simmons, which wicket-keeper Henrich Klaasen failed to hold. Lewis was on a roll, not sparing a single South African bowler.
He hit his fifty in style, slog sweeping Tabraiz Shamsi over deep square-leg in just 32 balls to reach the milestone. Lewis continued in the same vein after his fifty, clobbering Keshav Maharaj for a six, but perished a ball later, holed out to Rabada at deep midwicket, in pursuit of one too many. During his 35-ball innings, he hit three fours and six sixes.
Following Lewis’ superb start, two more quick wickets put a halt to the West Indies’ surge. But Simmons’ stay was arduous, as his 35-ball innings marked the men’s T20 World Cup’s joint-longest in terms of balls without a boundary.
Nicholas Pooran’s (12 off 7) stay was short-lived as he became Maharaj’s second victim, caught by David Miller, before being castled by Rabada in the following over. Kieron Pollard and Chris Gayle of the West Indies took Shamsi to task in the 16th over, blasting the left-arm spinner for sixes each.
Dwaine Pretorius halted Gayle’s run-a-ball 12 knock short, and Nortje cleaned up Andre Russell in the next over. Later, Shimron Hetmyer was run out for the West Indies, adding to their woes. Pollard scored 26 runs off 20 balls, but he couldn’t push the score higher as the game progressed.