South Africa fire Super 8 warning to India with UAE thrashing at T20 World Cup
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "South Africa fire Super 8 warning to India with UAE thrashing at T20 World Cup")
South Africa fire Super 8 warning to India with UAE thrashing at T20 World Cup Photograph: (AFP)
South Africa and New Zealand are two teams qualified from Group D. South Africa will face India in Ahmedabad on Sunday (Feb 22).
South Africa finished as table toppers in Group D after beating the UAE by six wickets, sending warning signs to India, their opponents in their first Super 8 tie in Ahmedabad on Sunday (Feb 22). Playing the United Arab Emirates in their final league game on Wednesday (Feb 18) at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium, the Proteas made light work of the minnows, handing them their third loss in this edition. While they had already qualified for the next round earlier, the UAE joins Canada and Afghanistan as three teams from that group to get knocked out of the tournament.
After restricting the UAE side to an under-par score of 122 for six in the first innings, South Africa completed the run chase inside 14 overs and six wickets remaining, with Dewald Brevis top scoring with 36 off 25 balls, including three sixes.
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Next for Aiden Markram’s team is India, whom they lost to at the previous edition’s final in Barbados.
Meanwhile, there was a nasty moment in the 16th over when the UAE's Alishan Sharafu was hit flush on the peak of his helmet by a Corbin Bosch bouncer that saw parts of the headgear go flying. The batsman was cleared to continue after a concussion check and slashed Bosch's next delivery to deep third man, where it fell just short of Anrich Nortje but squirmed under him and went for four.
The moment encapsulated an uncharacteristically sloppy fielding performance by South Africa in the dead-rubber match. They dropped four straightforward chances in the outfield, and Markram acknowledged they will need to be sharper against India.
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"We let ourselves down today in the field, not up to the mark at all", said the captain. "You don't want to create anything mentally by not being switched on. So nice little lesson for us to learn there.
"I've got no doubt the boys will be up for it again in Ahmedabad."
Sharafu top-scored for the UAE with 45; for South Africa, Dewald Brevis scored 36 and Ryan Rickelton 30.
Player of the match Bosch bowled a superb spell of 3-12 from his four overs.
(With inputs from AFP)
