Proteas seamer Lungi Ngidi was excellent with the ball in the Poweplay for the Proteas.
Image: AFP
Proteas captain Aiden Markram believed winning the powerplay with bat and ball respectively went a long way to his team’s convincing nine-wicket victory over West Indies in their ICC T20 World Cup clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.
The Proteas comfortably chased down the Windies’ 176/8 with 23 balls remaining, which was largely due to Markram and Quinton de Kock blazing 69 runs without loss in the powerplay. They extended their partnership to 95 before De Kock held out for 47. Ryan Rickleton (45 not out) then joined Markram to take the Proteas home.
“Chasing 180 basically, obviously the powerplay was a big thing for us, to get out of the powerplay quite nicely. So, a nice partnership with Quinny and then we pretty much scored runs really well throughout the powerplay,” the skipper, who top scored with an unbeaten 82, said.
“Whether I'm captain or not, opening is a responsibility, I have a good relationship with Quinny and (Ryan) Rickelton at No 3. We try to make sure the team gets off to a good start especially on wickets like this and hope to continue this.”
Markram had earlier won the toss and elected to bowl and Proteas seam duo Kagiso Rabada (2/22) and Lungi Ngidi (3/30) backed up their skipper’s decision with two wickets apiece early on to reduce the Windies to 52/4 after the first six overs.
Although the former champions recovered to a respectable total through a world-record eighth-wicket partnership between Romario Shepherd (52 not out) and Jason Holder (49), it was not enough to prevent the Proteas from inching closer to the semifinals.
“Thought we bowled nicely. A team like West Indies will take the game to you. Thought the pitch was tacky. With the early nip, wanted to keep the ball up. Steep bounce came from the tackiness,” Markram said.
“Fortunately ended up on the right side of the toss. Lot of credit to the bowlers. The guys bowled really well up front to take wickets. So, that helped a little bit.”
The Proteas have one final Group 1 Super Eight match remaining against Zimbabwe on Sunday, but could know their semifinal fate by Thursday after the clash between hosts India and the African nation in Chennai.