South Africa beat the table-toppers England in the final game of the group stage but it was too late as they failed to go through to the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 because of the lesser NRR. England and Australia have qualified for the semi-finals at No 1 and 2 respectively.
South Africa did everything they could, won four out of five games beat England but still exited the tournament in the group stage. The win against Bangladesh where they chased down 84 runs in 13.3 overs may come to haunt them for a long time. But they should keep their head high given what happened during the tournament and still they were able to perform on the field keeping that aside.
As far as the game was concerned it was a masterclass in batting by the South African duo of Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram, combined with some poor bowling from both sides.
South Africa were pegged back early but Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen provided them a perfect platform to launch and the latter found an able ally in Markram to execute the same as they stitched an unbeaten partnership of 103 runs off just 52 balls.
Rassie played an outstanding knock of 94* runs off just 60 balls smashing five fours and six sixes while Markram continued his superb form with a half-century off just 24 balls and Proteas put a sizeable total of 189 runs against a side like England at Sharjah on a much better surface.
South Africa end up with a score of 189/2.
Which Proteas batter impressed you the most? #T20WorldCup | #ENGvSA | https://t.co/5QisNAvEL6 pic.twitter.com/0ralNVZTUX
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) November 6, 2021
There were three scenarios before the chase started. England needed 87 runs to confirm their qualification, 106 runs to ensure that they finish as the table-toppers in Group 1 and score more than 131 to knock South Africa out and the third scenario panned out and it went to the wire.
Jason Roy retired hurt in a very heartbreaking way as he probably injured his hamstring and most likely will be out for the rest of the tournament. After that, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler gave them a flying start, Dawid Malan continued and Liam Livingstone, Eoin Morgan all chipped in but they fell short by 10 runs in the end.
Kagiso Rabada, who went for three sixes in his previous over against Livingstone, out of which one was 112 metres long, made amends by taking three wickets in just three balls and became only the fourth bowler to take a hat-trick in T20 World Cups, third in this edition only.
 Woakes Morgan Jordan
A hat-trick for Kagiso Rabada #T20WorldCup | #ENGvSA | https://t.co/5QisNAvEL6 pic.twitter.com/5e0r6lIqpN
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) November 6, 2021
By the virtue of the same, England will now wait for the second team from Group 2 while Australia will face Pakistan in the semi-finals.
