(CMC) – A typically enterprising 74 from Quinton De Kock topped an explosive 80 from Andries Gous and enabled South Africa to kick-start the Super Eight stage of the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup with an 18-run win against tournament co-hosts the United States in a tense finish yesterday in Antigua.
De Kock smashed seven fours and five sixes in his 40-ball innings that earned him the Player-of-the-Match award and spurred the South Africans to 194 for four after they were put in to bat in the Group 2 match at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
But Gous, a South African-born left-hander, slammed five fours and five sixes from 47 to lead the response for the Americans, but fast bowler Kagiso Rabada snared three for 18 from his allotted four overs, and they were restricted to 176 for six. Harmeet Singh got 38 for the United States, and with Gous, gave South Africa a fright with some dynamic batting inside the second half of the chase after their side slumped to 76 for five in the 12th over.
Singh came to the crease and put on 91 with Gous for the sixth wicket to give the Americans hope of a stunning come-from-behind win in the opening match of the second stage of the tournament, but Rabada caught him at deep mid-wicket with 28 required off the last 12 balls.
“We will sit down and dissect it, but sitting here again, a proud coach of what we’ve achieved,” United States coach Stuart Law said. “To get to the Super Eight was a phenomenal effort, but to then push South Africa, you can see they got nervous towards the back end of their innings.
“We lost Harmeet Singh at the wrong moment there – and that was a shame, but there are lots of things we can improve on.” He added, “You can tell the inexperience that we do have particularly against the bigger teams and that’s OK. You only get experience by playing, and it’s nice that performance warranted the South African coach coming over to me and saying, ‘we’d love to set up reciprocal series’. “It’s another great day. We didn’t get the result, but we showed that we can compete against some of the best players in the world.” Earlier, the United States had early success when they got opener Reeza Hendricks for 11 in the third over after they decided to field, but De Kock cut loose, and South Africa ended the Power Play on 64 for one. De Kock raced to 50 in 26 balls, and he shared a 110-run stand for the second wicket with his captain Aiden Markram before Singh struck twice off successive balls in the 13th over, and he had the South Africans stumbling on 126 for three.
Singh got De Kock caught at deep mid-wicket when he mistimed a full toss and held a sharp return catch to send David Miller packing for a first-ball duck, and the all-rounder ended with two for 24 from his four overs.
Markram made 46, and knocks of 36 not out from Heinrich Klaasen and 20 not out from Tristan Stubbs in an unbroken fifth wicket stand of 53 beefed up the total of the Proteas.
“The USA have been chasing well and that’s the reason why they chose to bowl first,” Rabada said. “I must commend our batting line-up, especially Quinton.
“At the end of the day, we got a respectable total on the board, or more than a respectable total on the board, which gave us an opportunity to put them under pressure with the ball.”
He said, “We got a couple of early wickets, and then Andres batted extremely well and gave them a good chance, and they came close in the end.
“You can never write any opposition off, no matter who they’re playing for. The USA has been playing well, they beat Pakistan, so hats off to the way they’re playing.” South Africa face England in their second Super Eight match tomorrow morning at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in St Lucia, while the Americans head to Barbados, where they will play fellow tournament co-hosts the West Indies on the same day under the lights at Kensington Oval.
