South Africa defeated West Indies by 9 wickets in an important Super 8 match of the 2026 T20 World Cup at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The Proteas won the toss and decided to field first. For West Indies, defeat means that their team may be knocked out in the next match against India.
After this victory, South Africa has almost confirmed its place in the semi-finals. The Windies have one match left against the Men in Blue, and the equation for the 2016 T20 World Cup champions is simple: they need to win against India at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday, March 1.
West Indies has to win against India at any cost
First of all, he would hope that India loses to Zimbabwe today. If West Indies fails to win against India on Sunday, the net run rate will matter and their net run rate will be better than India’s. On the other hand, if India beats Zimbabwe, the game between them and West Indies will be a virtual quarterfinal and the winner will advance to the semi-finals.
Talking about the match, Windies openers Shai Hope and Brandon King made a very good start. However, there was an early collapse when Kagiso Rabada came to bowl the third over. From 28/0 to 43/4, the Caribbean batsmen were stunned by the Proteas pace bowlers.
Rabada led the team by taking two wickets in his first over. West Indies were struggling at 83/7 when Romario Shepherd came to bat with Jason Holder at the crease.
record for west indies
Both the batsmen took charge against the Protea bowlers. They made a partnership of 89 runs for the 8th wicket, as it became the highest ever partnership for the 8th wicket in T20 WC history. Their partnership helped the Windies score a defendable total of 176/8.
Romario Shepherd scored 52 runs in 37 balls with the help of three fours and four sixes and Holder scored 49 runs in 31 balls with the help of four fours and three sixes. Lungi Ngidi was once again the best bowler of the team with 3 wickets for 30 runs.
Aiden Markram took command from South Africa
Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock, who came to chase, were moving towards the flyer. The first was aggressive and scoring runs at a good pace. It was all Aiden McCrum’s for five overs, and in the final over of the powerplay, De Kock joined the party, scoring 16 runs in Shamar Joseph’s over and ending the powerplay with the score at 69/0.
After this, both of them never seemed to slow down and they were targeting every bowler and putting them under pressure. However, after hitting a six and a four off Roston Chase in the 8th over, de Kock fell to the off-spinner at the score of 47 off 24 balls, hitting four fours and as many sixes.
Both of them made a partnership of 95 runs for the first wicket. Makram completed his third half-century of the tournament in just 27 balls. Aiden Markram remained unbeaten in the run chase at the big moment and scored 82* off 46 balls to take his team to chase the target in just 16.1 overs. Ryan Rickelton scored 45 runs in 28 balls.
Also read: “Winning should be priority”: Irfan Pathan’s last minute suggestion for Team India before Zimbabwe match
