Defending champions, the West Indies seems to be heading to an early exit from the ICC Men’s Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup. They suffered a second successive comprehensive defeat by South Africa in Group 1 at Dubai yesterday, three days after they were bowled out for 55 by England.
South Africa won yesterday’s match by 8 wickets with 10 balls remaining.
South Africa won the toss, put the West Indies in to bat first, and restricted them to 148-8 off their 20 overs. Opening batsman, Evin Lewis top-scored with 56 off 35 balls including 3 fours and 6 sixes. The next best score after that was captain, Kieron Pollard’s 26 off 20 balls with 2 fours and a six. South Africa’s best bowler was fast bowler, Dwaine Pretorius who took 3-17. His best support came from left-arm, leg-spinner, Keshav Maharaj with 2-24.
South Africa easily scored 144-2 in their reply for a convincing victory in their first match of the Tournament. Aiden Markram led their scoring with 51 not out off 26 balls with 2 fours and 4 sixes. Rassie van der Dussen was also unbeaten on 43 off 51 balls, and Reeza Hendricks made 39 off 30 balls.
The final scores: The West Indies 143-8 off 20 overs, South Africa 144-2 off 18.2 overs.
The defeat leaves the West Indies needing to win their final three Group 1 matches and hope results elsewhere go their way in order to finish in the top two of Group 1 and qualify for the semi-finals.
Their next opponents will be Bangladesh in Sharjah on Friday.
Yesterday’s match is likely to be remembered for South Africa’s wicketkeeper, Quinton de Kock’s withdrawal after refusing to take a knee in support of Black Lives Matter.
