South Africa beat the West Indies by three wickets in a Super Eights match on Sunday, hampered by rain, to reach the T20 World Cup semifinals and knock out the hosts.
South Africa was trying to make a new score of 123 runs in 17 overs, but they got stuck at 110–7 after Roston Chase took three wickets. However, Marco Jansen hit the first ball of the last over for six, and they reached their goal.
After South Africa won the toss, Tabraiz Shamsi took 3-27 and held the West Indies to 135-8 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. He was named the game's best player.
All-rounder Chase made 52 runs and put together an 81-run third-wicket stand with Kyle Mayers (35 off 34 balls). Chase then gave the West Indies hope by taking 3-12 with his off-spin.
The Proteas won when Jansen hit the last six off Obed McCoy for an unbeaten 21. The score was 124–7.
"The last time I played here, I went for 50 runs, and there was much chatter going around," Shamsi said.
"I was happy to come back and perform my role, but credit as well to the guys who bowled before me because they set it up beautifully."
When the left-arm wrist-spinner was brought in for seamer Ottneil Baartman, he had great help from slow bowlers Keshav Maharaj (1-24) and Captain Aiden Markram (1-28).
Anrich Nortje dropped Chase on 11, and he took advantage of the situation by hitting three fours and clearing the ropes twice.
He and Mayers worked together to save the hosts when they were down to 5-2 in the second over.
After Shamsi caught Mayers with a sliced catch at deep cover, South Africa kept the West Indies from scoring too many runs.
After making a mistake earlier, Nortje fixed it with a straight hit that got the dangerous Andre Russell out. Russell had hit two sixes in his 15 off nine balls.
West Indies leader Rovman Powell said, "This is one batting performance we will do our best to forget."
"I thought our bowling was excellent. At halfway, we said we would give it our all, and the guys did everything they could to protect that score.
Captain Markram, who won, said he was nervous during the tense battle.
"There is much relief at making the semifinals, but we are not going to be brainwashed by that because we would have liked to be a lot more convincing," he added.
"Maybe we tried to kill off the game too early, but that has been the story of the competition so far." Sometimes, we put ourselves in tough spots and fight to get through them.
South Africa and England are now in the semifinals after finishing second in Super Eight Group 2.
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