The Proteas continued their unbeaten run in the tournament after defeating a fighting Nepal side
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Saint Vincent: South Africa played their final group stage match against Nepal at the Arnos Vale stadium in Saint Vincent. The match held no significant importance for the Proteas as they were already qualified for the Super 8 stage with three wins in three matches. However, Nepal still had a chance to qualify if they won the match, so it was quite important for them.
Nepal won the toss and elected to bowl first. South Africa lost Quinton De Kock early which saw Reeza Hendricks form a good partnership alongside captain Aiden Markram. However, Markram lost his wicket in the eleventh over with the Proteas at 68/2 and from that point on wickets started to tumble. Kushal Bhurtel and Dipendra Singh Airee took 7 wickets between them with Bhurtel finishing with figures of 4/19 and Airee finishing at 3/21. This amazing bowling effort from the two restricted South Africa to 115/7 in 20 overs.
Even though Nepal had to only chase a modest target of 116, they knew that the South African bowlers won’t make it easy for them. Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh formed a decent opening stand of 35 runs before Bhurtel lost his wicket to Tabraiz Shamsi. Nepal’s captain, Rohit Paudel was dismissed for a duck in the same over by Shamsi which increased a lot of pressure on Nepal.
Sheikh and Anil Sah then formed another good partnership for Nepal, but Sah lost his wicket in the thirteenth over with Nepal at 85/3. Even though Nepal only needed 31 runs in 38 balls, a brilliant effort from South Africa’s bowling attack was able to take the match to the final over with Nepal requiring 8 runs in it.
The ball was handed to Ottneil Baartman for the final over. He only gave away 6 runs in 5 balls which left Nepal requiring 2 runs from the final ball of the match. The last ball saw Nepal’s Gulshan Jah lose his wicket thanks to a run out from Heinrich Klaasen as The Proteas broke Nepal hearts by winning the match by just one run. A great bowling effort from South Africa managed to restrict Nepal to 114/7 in 20 overs.
South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi was awarded with the man-of-the-match award for his brilliant figures of 4/19 in his quota of 4 overs. With this win, South Africa topped Group D with 8 points while Nepal was eliminated from the T20 World Cup after having just 1 point from 3 games.
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