Live Report – South Africa knock out West Indies to seal semi-final spot

Now, they’ve (almost) done it all. After an undefeated streak of six matches, five of them far too close for comfort, South Africa have survived a rain-reduced match and successfully chased a tricky target to book their spot in the semi-finals. In the process, they knocked co-hosts West Indies out and have topped their Super Eight group, which means they are also likely to avoid India in the final four. We’ll say it again: is this their time?

All the evidence points to a change of fortunes for a team that has so long coveted an ICC trophy and equally long, been denied. South Africa are now winning games they should be losing, scrapping like their rugby counterparts, the Springboks, who won the quarterfinals, semifinals and final, each by one point last year, and finding ways to overcome pressure. There’s a new-found tenacity to them and it’s seen them get to a T20 World Cup knockout for the first time in a decade.

Incidentally, when they got to the final four in 2014 tournament, Aiden Markram had just led the under-19 team to the age-group World Cup. Now, he finds himself captaining the senior side and he is doing differently and to great success. Markram took the new ball in this match, and bowled himself for a full quota of four overs. He decided to rely on a non-traditional strength: spin. South Africa had never bowled this many overs of spin in a T20 World Cup match (and only bowled more twice before against Sri Lanka in 2021) and the change of tack worked a charm. Between them, South Africa’s spinners took 5 for 79 in 12 overs.

They were largely responsible for keeping West Indies quiet and for several of the 57 dot balls West Indies faced in their innings – the equivalent of 9.3 overs – and the most at this T20 World Cup. Only an 81-run stand between Kyle Mayers and Roston Chase kept West Indies in the game, and they were the only two batters to get an individual score of more than 15.

And once the tears have dried, West Indies will look to their batting as the major reason they were unable to advance. Their bowlers were worked with what they had and had South Africa 15 for 2 in two overs, before the rain came down. Chase’s 3 for 12 and Josephs’ 2 for 25 kept them in it but even with South Africa seven down, West Indies were unable to pull off a miracle.