Razeen Gutta
South Africa’s win over India in a low-scoring but highly entertaining ICC T20 World Cup encounter in Perth proved bad news for Pakistan’s qualification hopes on Sunday.
Babar Azam’s men came back from tough results against India and Zimbabwe to beat the Netherlands by six wickets in the early game, but found themselves supporting their border rivals in the late one.
Pakistan needed India to win their remaining games to have any solid chances of semi-final qualification, but will now rely on unlikely upsets in the remainder of the super 12 stage of the tournament.
The result was largely due to some fantastic bowling from Lungi Ngidi, who dismissed Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya for low scores after India opted to bat first.
Suryakumar Yadav top scored for the Indians with a good 68 off 40, but with no one else scoring above 15, they only managed 133/9 in their 20 overs.
The chase was not as easy as it seemed, with Arshdeep Singh making use of the swing up top to leave South Africa 3-2 in the second over.
An unbeaten knock of 59 off 46 from David Miller and some fight from Aiden Markam (52) coupled with some errors in the field from the Indians helped the Proteas chase down the target in the final over.
The five-wicket win leaves South Africa top of the group with India in the qualification spot behind them as the last two group games remain before the semi-final stage.
Image source: @FoxCricket
