Chokers no more? South Africa pull off Houdini act

North Sound (Antigua), June 24

South Africa’s golden generation of white-ball cricketers took a big step towards erasing the ‘eternal chokers’ tag by keeping their composure to enter the semifinals of the T20 World Cup, beating a formidable West Indies by three wickets in a rain-truncated Super Eight game here.

57

South Africa’s spinners bowled 57 dot balls against West Indies — the equivalent of 9.3 overs — and the most at this T20 World Cup

Wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi (3/27) along with his slow bowling colleagues Keshav Maharaj (1/24) and skipper Aiden Markram (1/28) restricted West Indies to 135/8, as South Africa reached the revised target of 123 with five balls to spare.

The Proteas were 15/2 in two overs when rain disrupted proceedings. With this win, South Africa topped Group 1 followed by defending champions England as the second semifinalists.

Tristan Stubbs (29 off 27 balls), one of the up-and-coming star among the young T20 batters, set up the chase in company of Heinrich Klaasen (22 off 10 balls) for the South Africans.

But it was Marco Jansen (21 not out off 14 balls), who hit a beautiful six down the ground off the first ball of the 17th over bowled by left-arm pacer Obed McCoy to seal the deal. Equally praiseworthy was Kagiso Rabada’s copybook cover drive off Roston Chase when South Africa required 9 off 7 balls. — PTI