{"id":25418,"date":"2026-02-26T14:46:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=25418"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:46:27","slug":"t20-world-cup-south-africa-stay-unbeaten-with-nine-wicket-win-over-west-indies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=25418","title":{"rendered":"T20 World Cup: South Africa stay unbeaten with nine-wicket win over West Indies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Aiden Markram smacked 82 not out off 46 balls as South Africa beat West Indies by nine wickets to maintain their unbeaten record at the 2026 T20 World Cup.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">South Africa&#8217;s captain struck seven fours and four sixes as South Africa chased 177 with 23 balls to spare to move two points clear at the top of Group 1 in the Super 8s and put one foot in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 31-year-old, who brought up his half-century off 27 balls, shared a 95-run opening stand with Quinton de Kock (47 off 24) before the wicketkeeper was removed by Roston Chase in the eighth over. Ryan Rickelton chipped in with a quickfire 45 not out off 28 at number three. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Markram sealed South Africa&#8217;s fifth win of the tournament in Ahmedabad with his 11th boundary. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The victory puts the Proteas on the verge of the semi-finals without making them mathematically sure. They will go through if India beat Zimbabwe in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/cricket\/live\/cql4vxe4n11t\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Thursday&#8217;s other game.<\/a> West Indies play India in their final match of the group knowing a defeat will likely eliminate them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">South Africa, finalists in 2024, should have been chasing a significantly lower total after taking four wickets in the powerplay and later reducing West Indies to 83-7.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, the two-time champions fought back through Romario Shepherd and Jason Holder, who put on 89 (57) for the eighth wicket to drag West Indies beyond 170.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After smacking spinner Keshav Maharaj&#8217;s opening over for 17, West Indies, who piled on 254-6 against Zimbabwe in their Super 8 opener on Monday, lost four wickets in 11 balls to slump from 29-0 to 43-4 inside four overs, with Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi collecting two wickets apiece.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sherfane Rutherford, who couldn&#8217;t capitalise on being dropped on three, Rovman Powell, and Matthew Forde joined the procession back to the dressing room before Shepherd and Holder came together in the 11th over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After rebuilding steadily, the pair burst into life from the 15-over mark, Shepherd accelerating from 21 (17) to finish unbeaten on 52 (37) and Holder reaching 49 (31) before being run-out off the penultimate ball of the innings. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They added 58 runs off the final five overs, including Holder taking the 18th, bowled by Marco Jansen, for 23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#T20 #World #Cup #South #Africa #stay #unbeaten #ninewicket #win #West #Indies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aiden Markram smacked 82 not o&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}