T20 World Cup: South African pace sinks India

South Africa have gone a step closer to booking their T20 World Cup semi-final berth.

They recovered from a shaky start to chase down India’s total of 133 in Perth.

This was India’s first loss of the tournament.

The Proteas won by five wickets with two balls to spare, in a pace-dominated contest on a bouncy Optus Stadium deck.

Ngidi on fire

Seamer Lungi Ngidi (4-29 off four) was the star of the first innings, striking twice in his first over to get rid of both openers.

Rohit Sharma (15 off 14) and KL Rahul (9 off 14) were out cheaply during the power play, leaving India at 33-2.

Ngidi dismissed four of India’s top six including superstar Virat Kohli (12 off 11) and the dangerous Hardik Pandya (2 off 3) not long after the fielding restrictions eased.

Kohli struck back-to-back fours in the seventh over but sadly fell when he hit one down fine leg fielder Rabada’s throat three balls later and became Ngidi’s third scalp.

Rabada then took a screamer at the same position, diving forward at the perfect time which saw the end of Deepak Hooda for a third-ball duck off Anrich Nortje.

Suryakumar Yadav (68 off 40) turned the innings on its head to get his team out of a disastrous situation at 49-5 up to 133-9.

Yadav was the only Indian player to deal with South Africa’s searing pace attack, playing some extraordinary shots on his way to a 30-ball half-century.

Left-armer Wayne Parnell (3-15 off four) did the damage late with the prized scalp of Yadav among his victims.

South African start badly

The run chase started in horror fashion for South Africa.

They opener Quinton de Kock (1 off 3) and last game’s century maker Rilee Rossouw (0 off 2) in the space of three balls to Arshdeep Singh in the second over.

De Kock fellow to a sharp KL Rahul catch in the slips before Rossouw departed LBW after a successful review.

Captain Temba Bavuma (10 off 15) looked out of sorts and soon edged a Mohammed Shami delivery to gloveman Dinesh Karthik.

Aiden Markram (52 off 41 balls), who was dropped on 35 rode his luck to post an important half-century before David Miller (59 not out off 46) finished the job.