West Indies v South Africa

The Markram gamble

In a 46-match T20I career, Aiden Markram had opened bowling only nine times, and had taken only one wicket across these innings. His career aggregate before the match in the format stood at 11 scalps. Yet, once Marco Jansen took out the right-handed Shai Hope in the first over, it made sense for him to use his off-breaks against the left-handers, Kyle Mayers and Nicholas Pooran, especially with the wind.

Markram got Pooran first ball – he hit straight, against the wind, and could not clear the fielder in the deep – and finished with 4-0-28-1. The numbers might have looked even better, had Keshav Maharaj not dropped Roston Chase or Kagiso Rabada and Jansen not collided while trying to catch Mayers.

South Africa's spin choke

Not only did South Africa read the conditions well, replacing Ottniel Baartman with Tabraiz Shamsi, but they also deployed the spinners well. Once they got two wickets inside the first seven balls, Markram bowled his four overs on the trot, and brought Maharaj on inside the powerplay as well.

Once Markram was done, Shamsi replaced him. Mayers and Chase delayed the onslaught until the 12th over. When they did try to cut loose, Shamsi struck thrice in eight balls, while Maharaj took out Rovman Powell at the other end. Between them, the three South African spinners had figures of 12-0-79-5; their West Indian counterparts, impacted by dew, only managed 7-0-63-3.

Delaying Rabada's entry

It would have been tempting for Markram to try Rabada, his main strike bowler, especially when Mayers and Chase added 81 for the third wicket. He prefered to back his spinners instead in conditions that assisted them. As a result, Rabada finished the match with a few “firsts” in his career: he had never been the sixth bowler in a T20I attack, and never started bowling in the 18th over. It was not something many captains would have done. Eventually, he finished with figures of 1-11 from his two overs.

The fatal single

At 103-6 after 16 overs, the match seemed to be slipping away from the West Indies when Andre Russell began the 17th over with two sixes off Anrich Nortje. At that point, 150, or even more, did not seem impossible, especially after Sherfane Rutherford’s onslaught against New Zealand earlier in the tournament.

Russell then ran a single. Akeal Hosein failed to get a run off the next two balls but tapped the last ball of the over for a single. Hosein might have a first-class hundred, but the single to keep strike made little sense. Keen to get the strike back, Russell called for a risky single off the first ball of the next over: Nortje’s throw found him short, costing West Indies important runs and a spot in the semi-final.

De Kock’s early blows

West Indies made only 135-7, but the match was far from over, for the West Indies boasted of Hosein and Gudakesh Motie. But when they opened bowling with Hosein, de Kock went after him straight away, picking up three fours from the first four balls of the chase. Hosein never recovered, and finished with 0-31 from three overs.

Klaasen thwarting Motie

Powell delayed Motie until the powerplay got over. Chasing 123 in 17 overs, South Africa had reached 50-3 by then. A wicket, or even a maiden, would have swung the match in the hosts’ favour, but Klaasen, still new to the crease, was in no mood to concede ground. He lofted the first ball for six, and dispatched each of the last three balls to the fence. True, the last of these was an edge, but with no slip, there was little risk involved. Motie did not get another over, the target became 53 from 60...

Jansen taking it deep

... but South Africa caved in. Alzarri Joseph found extra bounce, Pooran leapt in the air, and Klaasen walked back. David Miller crawled to a 14-ball four before Chase bowled him. Tristan Stubbs holed out to long-on. South Africa needed 23 in 23 when Maharaj joined Jansen with four wickets in hand.

Jansen, only one of the South African bowlers who could pass as an all-rounder, decided to nudge the ball around and take it as deep as possible. When the asking rate threatened to rise slightly, Maharaj took a risk and perished, but Jansen stayed put. With nine to score off seven balls, Rabada put Chase away for an important four.

Having made 15 in 13 balls until this point, Jansen now sprung into action in the last over. When Obed McCoy pitched up, he targeted the straight boundary – and cleared it. For once, even the ominous combination of World Cup and rain could not prevent South Africa from winning.

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