Captain Aiden Markram spanked 28 from just 11 balls and Dewald Brevis struck 36 from 25 as South Africa galloped to a six-wicket victory after Corbin Bosch claimed 3-12 to help restrict the United Arab Emirates to a modest total of 122-6 in their final Group D match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday.
Ryan Rickelton contributed 30 from only 16 balls as the Proteas romped to 123-4 to secure victory with a whopping 6.4 overs to spare and maintain their perfect 4-0 record in the group stage. They will now play India, West Indies and Zimbabwe in the Super Eight stage.
Markram cut and drove five sumptuous boundaries and pulled spinner Haider Ali for six before missing a slog-sweep against Haider’s slower ball while Quinton de Kock (14) slashed seamer Muhammad Jawadullah to the cover boundary.
Rickelton pulled legspinner Muhammad Farooq for a pair of sixes in his first over before holing out to deep midwicket in search of a third while Brevis crashed three sixes and a four before miscuing to long off with just seven runs required.
Earlier Alishan Sharafu weathered two blows to the helmet from Kwena Maphaka and Anrich Nortje to reach a top score of 45 from 38 balls but the South African attack had too much pace and nous for the UAE top order despite an all round performance which was far from slick.
Opener Aryansh Sharma (13) top-edged Kagiso Rabada (4-0-30-0) for six in the first over before mis-hooking a Bosch bouncer to Maphaka while captain Muhammad Waseem (22) missed a sweep against Linde (1-17) and was trapped lbw.
Sohaib Khan (6) backed away from the pace of man-of-the-match Bosch to provide Quinton de Kock with a straightforward catch and Syed Haider (6) was equally uncomfortable against Nortje (4-0-28-2) bowling in the mid-140s and flapped another short ball to Maphaka at square leg.
Sharafu’s determined innings came to a close with yet another botched hook shot which Maphaka caught over his shoulder with Rabada perfectly placed to take the catch. Fortunately, the senior man had the game awareness to pull away and avoid a potentially serious collision.
South Africa spilt three chances with de Kock dropping a simple skier in the third over, Nortje held a good catch on the deep wicket boundary and relayed the ball to Jason Smith before stepping over the boundary – only for Smith to drop it, and Bosch clanged a straightforward effort off Rabada at long off in the 17th over.
South Africa included every member of the squad who hadn’t played in the tournament so far with Smith replacing David Miller in the middle order while fast bowlers Nortje and Maphaka played their first games in place of Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi. Spinner Linde replaced the rested Keshav Maharaj.
SOUTH AFRICA: Aiden Markram (captain), Quinton de Kock (wkt), Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis, Tristan Stubbs, Jason Smith, George Linde, Corbin Bosch, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Kwena Maphaka
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Aryansh Sharma (wkt), Muhammad Waseem (captain), Alishan Sharafu, Sohaib Khan, Harshit Kaushik, Muhammad Arfan, Dhruv Parashar, Muhammad Farooq, Haider Ali, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Jawadullah