SA scrape through to clinch semifinal spot in T20 World Cup

Despite a relatively underwhelming T20 World Cup campaign, South Africa have made it to the semifinals — with a little help from Australia.

On the final day of the group stage at the T20 World Cup, it all came down to the wire for South Africa and India, who were eyeing that last semifinal spot.

South Africa needed to beat Bangladesh in their game on Sunday, 28 June, at Lord’s in London, and for Australia to beat India in the game after that — which they did, by six wickets.

While the Proteas got the job done against Bangladesh, it was far from convincing. They will head into Thursday’s semifinal against an unbeaten England side knowing improvement is required.

A heavy-weather chase

After South Africa’s bowlers did well to restrict Bangladesh to 117 runs, one would have thought it a straightforward chase for South Africa. However, it was anything but.

By the final over, the Proteas were six wickets down and needed five runs from six balls. Their semifinal hopes seemed to be slipping away.

With a semifinal on the line, the batters lacked fluency and confidence, eventually scraping through.

“We seem to always do this, and I don’t know why,” said Marizanne Kapp after the match.

The nerves set in immediately when skipper Laura Wolvaardt was dismissed on the first ball of South Africa’s innings. Wolvaardt has struggled to find her rhythm all tournament and was denied the chance to find form in this innings.

“Coming into this tournament, I was feeling really good, so I’m annoyed to have lost it along the way a little bit,” said Wolvaardt at a post-match press conference. “I may be trying to force it a little bit too much, not letting the ball come to me, and play my normal game and my normal timing like I should.”

That left Tazmin Brits and Annerie Dercksen with the task of steadying the innings. The pair guided the team to 40 for one at the end of the Powerplay and appeared to have settled the chase after enjoying a 57-run partnership.

The real challenge came when Brits and Dane van Niekerk were dismissed in successive overs.

This was Van Niekerk’s first time with the bat since being taken off the bench three games ago. It will be an innings to forget, however, as she managed just four runs.

At the halfway mark, South Africa were 59 for three and needed 59 off the next 10 overs. Dercksen batted for four more overs and got South Africa 31 runs away from winning, leaving it to big-hitters Kapp and Nadine de Klerk.

They made heavy weather of their chase, however, as their partnership was made up of stop-start movement between the wickets, and eventually Kapp departed for 16 after being felled by an inevitable run-out.

“We needed a win, and it’s a bit frustrating how we got ourselves into that position,” said Wolvaardt. “It was a bit of a mindset thing today, knowing that we only needed to chase 120, and so we batted a bit within ourselves. We didn’t really go to our positive options early enough, and they [Bangladesh] were bowling really slow on a slowish wicket.

“But I think in situations like that, we have to take the braver option earlier.”

‘A win is a win’

Earlier, the opening bowling pair of Kapp and Shabnim Ismail were relentless in their line and lengths, extracting assistance from the surface.

Kapp celebrated her 100th T20 International wicket when she struck with the first ball of the match. The all-rounder was disciplined in her approach to bowling, with an economy rate of 2.25, to end with figures of 1-9 off four overs.

Ismail also picked up a wicket as the pair restricted Bangladesh to 23 for two at the end of the Powerplay, with 64% of their deliveries in the Powerplay being dot balls.

“[Ismail and Kapp] have been excellent in the Powerplay,” said Wolvaardt. “Kappi is world-class, and when the ball’s moving around like that, you might as well use her overs early because she can bowl really well up-front and get us way ahead of the game early.

“Then we have the likes of Shabnim now as well, so we can maybe hold one of them back, use that over a bit later. So it’s been really nice having the both of them and to be able to use them at different times.”

Nonkululeko Mlaba chipped in with two wickets during another fine spell, while De Klerk also provided effective support with a wicket.

The Proteas would have preferred to restrict Bangladesh to below 100 runs, but uncharacteristically took their foot off the pedal at the death.

Ayabonga Khaka endured a difficult outing, conceding 29 runs without taking a wicket. She leaked 23 of those in the 18th and 20th overs alone.

South Africa now face England on Thursday, 2 July, at 7.30pm South African time. To reach a third T20 World Cup final, they will need a far more complete performance than anything they have delivered in the tournament so far.

But, as Kapp put it, “A win is a win, even if it’s scrappy.” DM