Fri, 2024 South Africa won a narrow victory over Nepal in the T20 World Cup Match with Tabraiz Shamsi bowling 4/19 in four overs and getting support from Anrich Nortje and Aiden Markram who took wickets.
After securing a nail-biting one-run victory, South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi expressed relief at his team’s hard-fought triumph.His figures of 4 for 19 in four overs (economy rate: 4.80) earned him player-of-the-match honors.
In the post-match interview, Shamsi revealed that South Africa had set themselves the ambitious goal of winning all four matches in the group stage.
He admitted that it was tough for his side in every match but praised their ability to perform well when it mattered most, something that would be crucial going into the knockout stages of this tournament.
“We came here aiming to win all our games (stage 4 out of 4), so I’m relieved. It’s a little closer than we’d like, but as you can see, the team is rising to these challenges. It’ll be turn everywhere we go across Caribbean so I just assumed there will be spin today.” “I think it got better later on.” “Every game has been a pressure cooker but now we’re use to it so going into knockouts,” said Shamsi.
South Africa finished top of Group D with eight points after winning all their four games while Nepal languished at fourth place having lost two games and first match ended in no result resulting them only one point.
Nepal won the toss and elected to bowl first. Reeza Hendricks played a vital innings which yielded forty-three runs off forty-nine balls including five fours and one six as he saw his colleagues fall around him. Things appeared gloomy for Proteas at 82/4 after about fifteen overs.
This innings was complete with a 27-ball knock of 27* (2 fours & a six) that helped his team to set the opposition a target of 115 runs in twenty overs.
Kushal Bhurtel took four wickets for nineteen and Dipendra Singh Airee three for twenty-one, which restricted South Africa’s batters.
A partnership worth fifty between Aasif Sheikh, who scored forty-two off forty-nine balls including one four and one six, and Anil Sah, who made twenty-seven from twenty-four deliveries comprising three fours and one six, kept Nepal in the hunt while chasing. With eight runs needed off the last over, Gulshan Jha was run-out on the last ball, thus making Nepal fall short by just one run and miss their chance of securing an unforgettable win.
