T20 World Cup 2021: Match 18, South Africa vs West Indies – Who Said What

The South African side posted its first win of the 2021 T20 World Cup by beating the West Indies comfortably with 8 wickets and 10 balls to spare. Chasing a target of 144 set by the West Indian outfit, South Africa lost their skipper Temba Bavuma with just 4 runs on the board.

But then, Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen put on a sedate 57-run stand for the second wicket. After the departure of Hendricks for 39, van der Dussen and Aiden Markram joined forces and forged a superb 83-run unbeaten partnership and ensured that the Proteas went past the target set by the West Indies with ease.

Akeal Hosein was the only bowler who scalped a wicket for West Indies with the ball. In the 4 overs that he bowled, Hosein leaked 27 runs. None of the other West Indian bowlers could trouble the South African batsmen.

Evin Lewis’ half-century propels West Indies to 143/8

Batting first, the West Indies scored 143/8 in their allotted 20 overs. And, the batsman who played a major role in helping the West Indies reach there was Evin Lewis. Opening the batting, Lewis scored a blazing 56 off just 35 deliveries at the top of the order.

Apart from Lewis, West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard also chipped in with a useful 20-ball 26 as well. None of the other West Indian batsmen could even cross the 20-run mark with the willow in hand.

Dwaine Pretorius was the leading wicket-taker for the South African side with the ball. The right-arm pacer scalped 3 wickets in the 2 overs that he bowled, and gave away 17 runs. Apart from Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj also picked up a couple of wickets as well.

Winning skipper Temba Bavuma said:

Much better than our first game. We knew the areas we had to improve on, more particularly our batting, our bowling was outstanding. Good day for us. I think the conversations we have on the field are a lot shorter, a lot clearer on what to do, and they (Rabada and Nortje) pass on information to other bowlers as well. Their knowledge has been a positive one for us. We were all watching that (ENG v WI) game, but weren’t sure how the wicket was going to react, so we thought Aiden could have a go and he did well. Those are the types of performance we are looking forward to from our batters, Aiden is hitting the ball really well at the moment. I guess a bit of both (got in the way and inspired), when the news (of de Kock) hit us, it did kind of take us back a bit as a team. Losing a guy like Quinny.. he plays a vital role in the team, not only with the bat but as a senior player, but with Klaasen coming in it was an opportunity for him. At the end of the day it was another game of cricket to play for our country and we had to make sure we lived up to that.

Losing skipper Kieron Pollard said:

We haven’t scored enough runs. Batters haven’t come to the party, again disappointing today. I thought the first six overs in terms of end result.. 43/0, we will take that. Not losing wickets in the powerplay was important. We lost a couple of wickets later and it was just stop-start. Yes he (Simmons) got stuck, these things happen. After six overs he was there and we wanted to bat a couple of more overs without losing wickets but you are not going to get me pinpoint and you are not going to get me throwing my players under the bus. At the end of the day, he was out there trying for us. Yes, he may not have got it done, but when you look at it… Rassie played for them, the only difference is he came out not out but his strike rate was low as well. It was a total disappointing batting effort. We need to win first before thinking of net run rate. I thought the bowlers did well to bring it down to 18 odd overs. Batting has disappointed us, which is why we lost today.

Player of the Match Anrich Nortje said:

100 percent, it’s (playing IPL in the UAE) helped me quite a lot. It’s helped us as well being able to give some information to the team on conditions, that’s probably the situation for all the players in all the teams. Just having the confidence of knowing the conditions and understanding what to do, when to do it definitely has helped me coming here. It was a good wicket, similar to the IPL, playing around with the ball with the grip – definitely it brings in some extra variation and something else to the bowlers. It’s always nice working with him (Rabada), his ideas and knowledge about game in the situation. It’s not a lot about skill anymore, it’s about understanding and communication on the field. It’s really nice to have him around. We said we were quite happy with that happened in the game (against Australia). With the batting, we wanted to improve. What the guys did out there was awesome. Hopefully we can build on this. I don’t think we’re close to a perfect game, but we can keep on building and try to get as close to that perfect game as possible. That’s all I want to do – just keep on improving every day.