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Following his side's win over West Indies, South African skipper Aiden Markram expressed happiness with his side's performance in the powerplay with bat and ball alike and added that "no step in this competition is easy".
Markram's men continued their unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup, securing their sixth-successive win with a nine-wicket triumph over West Indies at Ahmedabad on Thursday. With this win, they have a foot out the Super Eight door and are close to the semifinals and have also benefitted India with the win. Speaking during the post-match presser, Markram said, "I thought we actually bowled quite nicely. A team like West Indies will take the game to you. Thought the pitch was tacky and stopy. With the early nip, wanted to keep the ball up. Steep bounce came from the tackiness. Fortunately ended up on the right side of the toss." The Proteas captain said as they bowled, the Ahmedabad pitch kept getting "better and better" to bat on and admitted that going for yorkers and a change of pace later while bowling did not work. He also hailed left-hander Ryan Rickelton, who played an important knock, for "making the number three spot his own." At number three, Rickelton has played 11 innings and scored 357 runs at an average of 44.62, with a strike rate of 164.51 and two fifties. "No step in this competition is easy. Hopefully, we get through (to the semifinals). Will be great, do not think too far ahead, but boys have got used to the conditions here (at Ahmedabad)," he concluded. Coming to the match, South Africa won the toss and elected to field first. Lungi Ngidi (3/30 in four overs) and Rabada (2/22 in four overs) stunned the Windies batting in the first half, sinking them to 83/7. However, an 89-run entertaining counter-attacking stand between Romario Shepherd (52* in 37 balls, with three fours and four sixes) and Jason Holder (49 in 31 balls, with three fours and three sixes) took WI to 176/8 in 20 overs, with Marco Jansen's four-over spell of 50 runs being a big negative for the Proteas. In the run-chase, Markram (82* in 46 balls, with seven fours and four sixes) and Quinton de Kock (47 in 24 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes) had a quickfire 95-run partnership and later on, it was Rickelton (45* in 28 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) who had a partnership with Markram to take SA to a nine-wicket win with nine wickets in hand. (ANI)
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