South Africa defeated India by 76 runs in Ahmedabad to end the defending champions’ 12-match winning streak at the T20 World Cup as Aiden Markram lauded them.
South Africa stunned India with a dominant 76-run victory in their opening Group 1 Super Eights match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The win ended India’s 12-match winning streak in the tournament.
Led by Aiden Markram, South Africa posted 187/7 after strong performances from David Miller and Tristan Stubbs. Miller played a counter-attacking knock of 63, while Stubbs provided late momentum to lift the total.
In reply, India were bowled out for 111 in 18.5 overs. It was their first run chase of the tournament, and the batting line-up struggled under pressure.
Left-arm pacer Marco Jansen delivered a match-winning spell of 4/22, while left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj claimed 3/24. The South African bowlers exposed weaknesses in India’s batting unit.
Aiden Markram Praises Team
Praising his team’s effort, Markram said, “Great performance. Very different type of wicket to what we’ve had here, so great to see the boys assess that pretty early and adapt their skills to execute their plans,” said South Africa captain Aiden Markram.
He added, “We’re really pumped for the bowling group. They’ve been working hard, started the comp a bit tough, but the way they rocked up tonight was a great effort.”
South Africa found themselves in early trouble at 20/3. However, Miller and Dewald Brevis stitched together a crucial 97-run partnership. Brevis scored 45 as the pair steadied the innings and rebuilt the total.
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“The guys were great, put that together for us, steadied the ship and kept us in the game. Conversations towards the back end were that the ball was travelling tonight, felt almost a bit spongy, so it was about finding space where we could run hard, drop the ego and take as much as we could at the back end,” he said
Markram further explained, “They bowled well up front and at the death as well, but I thought our batting through the middle was probably the difference. Good effort in the field. We put two down but not for lack of effort,” Markram added.
Although Lungi Ngidi did not take a wicket, he impressed with tight bowling figures of 0/15 in four overs.
“We feel like Lungi is a threat whenever he bowls and that he can take wickets for us in that middle phase. It depends on conditions – if we don’t feel like it will do much with the new ball, we’d rather hold him back, but if there’s something in it, he gets something out of the wicket. We’ll assess it on game days and give him that role. He’s happy to do anything, a proper team man, and he just keeps delivering,” Markram said in his praise.
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