KINGSTOWN: South Africa survived a major shock from Nepal in scrambling a nerve-jangling one-run win in their final Group D match of the T20 World Cup 2024 at the Arnos Vale Stadium in St Vincent on Friday.
Needing 8 runs off the final over in pursuit of a modest target of 116 for a stunning upset victory, the Nepalese fell painfully short at 114 for seven with Gulshan Jha run out off the final ball as he tried a single off Ottneil Baartman to force a super over.
South Africa captain Aiden Markram said that very grateful to have got the win, they were not near their best tonight. He said that reflecting back on the game over the next few days, there will be a lot of learnings for them. He admitted that the way Nepal bowled it made it really tough for then and they put them under a lot of pressure.
Already assured of a position in the Super Eight phase of the mega tournament and fully anticipating to close out the group campaign with a fourth victory in as many matches, none of the South African top-order were in position to get on top of the bowling, although opener Reeza Hendricks managed to give the innings some sort of stability with a top score of 43 off 49 balls.
Nepal skipper Paudel said that they are very proud of the unit, especially the way they bowled and batted. He thought they fought very good and if they get more exposure to games like this, they would be on the other side.
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