South Africa beats England by seven runs in the Super Eight Group 2 match of ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The match was played at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Grod Islet in Saint Lucia on Friday, June 21, 2024.
South Africa won the match by 163/6 runs against England who scored 156/6 runs. Quinton de Kock was recognised as Player of the Match, and made the highest 65 runs in 38 balls.
Reportedly, South Africa didn’t seem to have enough runs and has scored 63 runs in the powerplay but only another 100 in the next 14 overs. It seemed that they have got their selection slightly wrong on a slower-than-expected pitch by picking only one specialist spinner. They then got bowled out by the 13th over of England’s chase.
Their quicks did not appear to have fully bought into pace-off and gave away 52 runs in three overs between the 15th and 17th over, leaving England to need only 25 runs off the last 18 balls.
De Kock won the Man of the Match, as he was the only batter to get a read the surface with a superlative 65 runs in 38 balls. The 21-run over against Archer in the powerplay was a key to South Africa’s win and it felt like he was batting on a different surface.
Harry Brook, player from England topped the score board with 53 runs but Kaigso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj both took two wickets. SA won over USA making it six wins from six at the tournament.
England’s Jos Buttler credited de Kock for winning the match and said that he was a game changer. Praising de Kock, Buttler said, “Quinton de Kock came in with a lot of intent and we couldn’t quite match that. We pulled it back and were happy to chase that target, but his innings was a great difference.”
He added that they came back well with their bowling. Brook and Livingstone had a fantastic partnership to get us close and even look like favourites but credit to South Africa for closing out the game.
Winning the Man of the Match, De Kock marked that it was a good effort from them. He said that, “The pitch definitely doesn’t play the same as night games. It’s completely a different surface compared to the night games. There was a little bit of extra bounce early on.”
The South African batsman added that he tried to carry on with confidence game by game. He said that they bowled really well in the powerplay and they controlled it very nicely. They were able to defend 160 on a decent wicket which is a god effort from them.
Considering their win, Captain Aiden Markram expressed that they are on the right track. He stated that last three overs had a lot against then but the bowlers had good plans and pulled it off.
The captain emphasised, “Message after the power play was it got slower. If I am greedy, we were 10-20 short especially after the start we got. Not quite played a complete game of cricket but we are on the right track.”
South Africa will play its next match against West Indies on Monday, June 24, 2024 which will begin at 6:00 a.m.