SA defeats Windies thanks to Markram

Aiden Markram struck a whirlwind unbeaten fifty as South Africa produced an all-round effort to bounce back strongly from its opening defeat and beat West Indies by eight wickets in the Super 12 stage of the Men’s T20 World Cup here on Tuesday.

The Proteas overcame off-field drama as Quinton de Kock stunningly withdrew from the match, refusing to adhere to Cricket South Africa’s order that the entire team take the knee before every game of the event to support the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign.

South Africa weathered Evin Lewis’ (56 off 35 balls, 3 fours, 6 sixes) initial onslaught to restrict West Indies to 143 for eight. It then rode on solid batting displays from Markram (51 not out off 26 balls, 2 fours, 4 sixes), Rassie van der Dussen (43 not out off 51 balls, 3 fours) and Reeza Hendricks (39 off 30 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) to comfortably chase down the target with 10 balls to spare.

Contrary to the end result, South Africa did not have the best of starts to its chase, losing skipper Temba Bavuma early to a run out. But Hendricks, who replaced de Kock, and van der Dussen then stabilised the innings with a 57-run second wicket stand.

0

0