Windies’ road to semi-final hits snag with 9-wicket defeat to South Africa 

They now have all to play for against India on Sunday

South Africa 177 for 1 (Markram 82*, de Kock 47; Chase 1-46) beat West Indies 176 for 8 (Shepherd 52*, Holder 49; Ngidi 3-30) by 9 wickets 

The West Indies were comprehensively beaten by South Africa in their second Super Eight encounter at the ICC T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The defeat, which was the Caribbean side’s first of the tournament, means their hopes for a semi-final berth now rest on their matchup against India on Sunday.

With 177 runs to defend, the West Indies struggled to find an early breakthrough, much like the series between the two sides just prior to the competition. The South African openers thrashed 95 off 48 deliveries to snatch any hopes the West Indies had of making the target a tricky one.

Quinton de Kock scored a rapid 47 (24 balls), alongside player of the match Aiden Markram, who batted through the chase in an unbeaten knock of 82 from 46 balls. The Proteas needed only two partnerships to confirm the win, after Ryan Rickelton (45*) joined Markram at the fall of de Kock’s wicket to share in an unbroken 82-run stand (50 balls), which saw them home at 177 for 1 with 23 balls to spare. 

The West Indies began their innings scoring quite freely. The issue for Shai Hope’s men was that there was little difference between the frequency with which they were scoring boundaries and that with which wickets fell. Following a 14-ball 29-run stand between Hope and Brandon King, the West Indies lost four wickets for 14 runs to be restricted to 43 for 4 inside four overs.

They then found themselves 83 for 7 before Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd came together for a recovery. Shepherd (52 from 37) and Holder (40 from 31) fashioned the highest eighth-wicket partnership in Men’s T20Is, scoring 89 runs from 57 deliveries, to lift the West Indies to what they hoped was a defendable 176 for 8 from their allotment.