Proteas power past West Indies
In a group widely touted as the 'group of death,' another loss has potentially hampered the current champions’ chances for qualification to the knock-out round.
South Africa cruised to an 8-wicket victory against West Indies to register their first win in the 2021 T20 World Cup. West Indies were beaten 2-3 in their own backyard a few months ago and South Africa have beaten them here at the World Cup too. They literally had this sealed with the ball in hand.
The Group 1 contest pitted two teams who badly needed victory to rekindle their semi-final hopes after being beaten in their respective Super 12 stage openers.
After restricting the West Indies to 143/8, the Proteas chased down the target with 10 balls remaining.
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Aiden Markram remained unbeaten on 51 with Rassie van der Dussen making an important contribution with an unbeaten 43. Reeza Hendricks, who replaced Quinton de Kock in the lineup, scored a brisk 39.
Earlier, Evin Lewis (56) was the only positive as the West Indies batting lineup failed to step up for a second successive game.
Evin Lewis and Lendl Simmons set the tone with an opening stand of 73, but South Africa's attack pulled it back and took 3 for 16 between the 11th and 14th over. Simmons' glacially slow innings will be a major talking point on the West Indies side. The opener scored 16 runs off 35 balls at a strike rate of 45.71. Evin Lewis scored a quickfire 56 from 35 balls.
South Africa suffered a jolt even before a single ball was bowled as wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock defied a team order to take a knee and sat out the match over what skipper Temba Bavuma called "personal reasons."
In a group widely touted as the 'group of death,' another loss has potentially hampered the current champions' chances for qualification to the knock-out round.
