There was no nervy finish for South Africa as they kept their cool under pressure to beat the West Indies by three wickets in a rain-shortened Super Eights game in Antigua and book a place in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 .
Sunday's rain-delayed match at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium weighed on both teams, but in the end the night belonged to South Africa, who chased the tight Duckworth-Lewis-Stern goal (DLS method) with five balls to spare.
South Africa asked the West Indies to bat first and restricted the hosts to 135-8 in 20 overs, with left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi picking up three wickets for 27 runs in his four overs. Roston Chase was the top scorer with 52 runs.
Rain stopped play early in South Africa's chase and their target was reset to 123 from 17 overs when play resumed.
The Proteas looked set for a comfortable victory as captain Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs batted together, until Alzarri Joseph removed Markram.
With the support of a local partisan crowd, the men in maroon rallied to keep the pressure on the visitors.
The West Indies continued to break South African partnerships at regular intervals, but a poor delivery from spinner Gudakesh Motie, who gave away 20 runs, swung the game in favor of the Proteas.
The nervous nature of the chase and South Africa's history of falling short in the latter stages of World Cups meant the pressure was on their lower order batsmen while 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 there were plenty of smiles when Marco Jansen sealed South Africa's victory with a six from Obed McCoy in the last over.
“There was no pressure or crazy thoughts on the bench, even when rain interrupted the game and we got into difficult situations,” he said after the game.
“We were all very calm.”
Markram said there was “a lot of relief” in the South African camp at having reached their first T20 World Cup semi-final in 10 years, but urged his team to “test themselves”. [our] best match of the semi-final.”
South Africa goes through as winners of Group 2 and will face the second placed team in Group 1.
