Miller and bowlers propel Proteas to T20 World Cup victory in Super Eights

The 2026 T20 World Cup match between India and South Africa in Ahmedabad arrived with the attention on the batting lineups. However, it was the bowlers who starred (alongside Proteas batter David Miller) for the respective teams as South Africa recorded a 76-run victory at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday, 22 February 2026.

The South Africans had their two top wicket-takers at the tournament so far, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi, in the lineup. Nevertheless, it was captain and top-order batter Aiden Markram who claimed the Proteas’ opening wicket against the World Cup co-hosts.

With the Proteas hoping to defend their tally of 187 for seven, Markram handed himself the new ball. The skipper then justified his unorthodox decision as he dismissed Indian opener Ishan Kishan for a duck.

From then onwards, the South African bowlers would continue to take wickets at regular intervals as they frustrated the pre-match favourites.

By the 10th over, the Indians were on 51 for five. Jansen added four more wickets to the seven he came into the match with, while Corbin Bosch maintained his wicket-taking form from his match-winning display against the United Arab Emirates with a haul of two for 12.

With India’s batters on the ropes, in came spinner Keshav Maharaj to strike more blows after the onslaught ignited by his captain Markram. Maharaj stifled any fight the Indians might have hoped to mount at the death with three quickfire wickets, all in the 15th over.

Jansen then crushed whatever resistance was left in the Indian lineup with his third and fourth wickets of the day. The towering all-rounder ousted India’s highest scorer in the match, Shivam Dube (42), and then put the full stop to India’s batting innings by claiming the final wicket of the day – that of Jasprit Bumrah.

Explosive Bumrah

South Africa’s batting has undoubtedly been their strength at the T20 World Cup. However, against the belligerent bowling of Bumrah, the Proteas’ premier willow-wielders were tested.

Bumrah terrorised the South African batters to finish with impressive figures of three for 15 on the day. He dismissed two of South Africa’s top-order batters – Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton – in each of his first two overs.

With this latest haul, the sensational seamer took his overall T20 World Cup tally for India to 33 wickets, the most by any Indian bowler in history.

“He has a wonderful wrist position. He bowls brilliantly with the new ball in the power play, does the same in the middle [period of the innings], and his death bowling is exceptional,” former Protea Shaun Pollock was quoted by the Sowetan as saying of Bumrah in the lead up to the match.

India came into the clash against the Proteas on a 12-match winning streak in the World Cup.

The last time the reigning T20 World Cup champions had lost a match in the tournament was at the 2022 edition, where they were vanquished by England in the semifinals. On the way to winning a second T20 title two years ago, the Asian nation was undefeated.

Proteas batters fight back

Despite India’s strong start with the ball, a 97-run partnership between Dewald Brevis and Miller steadied South Africa’s innings. The pair found the Proteas flailing at 20 for the loss of three wickets.

While Brevis eventually fell for 45 from 29 balls, Miller put on a show as he clocked 63 off 35 balls, before being sent packing by spinner Varun Chakaravarthy.

Tristan Stubbs took the baton seamlessly from his fellow middle-order big swingers with a useful 44 from 24 balls.

With the Indians on home soil and South Africa’s bowling attack not at its sharpest on occasions at this tournament so far, the direction of the match was unclear when South Africa’s batting effort ended. But the Proteas stepped up with the ball to break millions of Indian hearts.

2024 World Cup final sequel

Before the match, and being castled by Bumrah, opener De Kock had spoken about how elated he was to be back with the national team after an absence of more than a year on the back of South Africa losing the 2024 T20 World Cup final to India.

“I’m happy to be back with my boys and playing for the Proteas. The break away from international stages was good. To come back and be refreshed; to be back with the guys who I really love playing with and who I’ve always dreamt of playing with has been great for me,” De Kock said.

Since the Proteas’ clash against the Indians was also a replay of the previous T20 World Cup final, De Kock was probed about how South Africans navigated the grief of losing the 2024 decider.

“To be honest, after that day, we just forgot about it, in all honesty,” the batter wicket-keeper said. “I don’t think any of us really wanted to speak about it,” De Kock said.

“Everyone went home and kind of went through their own process on how to deal with it. We didn’t need to talk about it as a team. That’s pretty much it. We never really spoke about it. From there, I was not with the team much. So, they probably [spoke about it]. I’ve only just joined for the last couple of months,” he said.

With this win, the South Africans have shown that they are the team to beat at this tournament. Next are Super Eights assignments against West Indies and Zimbabwe. DM