USA vs SA Match Highlights And Report-T20 WC: Although South Africa got the expected result of a win against the USA to kick start their Super 8 round, the margin of victory of only 18 runs while defending 194 tells that the USA batters put up a fight that threatened the Proteas of an upset.
Quinton de Kock’s 74 and Kagiso Rabada’s 3/18 were the best efforts from South Africa with bat and ball, respectively. However, they needed much more than those to overcome the fight shown by Andries Gous, who scored 80 (47), and Harmeet Singh, who cracked 38 (22).
USA vs SA Match Highlights And Report-T20 WC
Realising that the pitch and conditions at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua were much better for batting than what South Africa played on in New York in the group stage, the Protea batters attacked from the get-go.
Though Reeza Hendricks perished early to Saurabh Netravalkar, de Kock and Aiden Markram kept the attacking tempo going to take their side to 64/1 at the end of the powerplay. De Kock took a proper pounding on the legside boundary with a spate of pull shots as he hammered 41 (18) in the powerplay.
The boundaries kept coming from the bats of both batters. De Kock reached his half-century in 26 balls, the joint-third-fastest of the tournament, and also recorded his highest score in T20 World Cup.
Left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh took out de Kock and David Miller on consecutive balls, and Markram was dismissed by Netravalkar for 46. USA got a chance in this period to put pressure on South Africa, but Heinrich Klaasen and Tristan Stubbs ensured South Africa got a strong finish through their stand of 53 (30). South Africa posted 194 on the scoreboard.
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In the chase, Steven Taylor and Andries Gous pounded Marco Jansen, taking 32 runs off his three overs but Taylor was dismissed by Rabada, who also sent Nitish Kumar packing. USA reached 53/2 at the end of the powerplay, and soon after lost the in-form Aaron Jones for a duck to Shamsi.
USA slipped further when Nortje yorked Corey Anderson and Shamsi had Shayan Jahangir lbw, their score reading 76/5 and the game looking out of their reach.
However, Gous and Harmeet Singh showed the spirit that has defined USA’s tournament. The duo collected boundaries off Shamsi and Maharaj before Gous pumped Nortje for a four and six to reach his fifty in 33 balls.
Shamsi was whacked by the duo as the wrist-spinner leaked 35 runs in his last two overs, which meant USA needed a gettable 28 runs in 12 balls. However, Rabada had Harmeet caught at deep mid-wicket on the first ball of the 19th over. Rabada and Nortje were spot on in the last two overs and conceded only 9 runs combined, and even the well-set Gous couldn’t do much against them.
Score summary: South Africa 194/4 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock, Saurabh Netravalkar 2/21); USA 176/6 in 20 overs (Andries Gous 80, Kagiso Rabada 3/18). South Africa defeated USA by 18 runs.
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