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Markram ‘not brainwashed’ by reaching semifinals

general24 June 2024 09:59| © MWP
By:Neil Manthorp
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South African captain, Aiden Markram, was in no mood to celebrate after his team almost botched a straightforward run-chase to beat the West Indies by three-wickets with five balls to spare to reach the semifinals of the T20 World Cup in Antigua on Monday morning.

“There’s a lot of relief to get to the semifinal but I’m not going to be brain-washed by that,” Markram said. “We would have liked to be a lot more convincing in getting the job done with the bat, especially after the rain break when we thought the wickets was playing nicely,” Markram said.

Markram himself holed out to mid off for 18, David Miller was bowled attempting to force the pace while Tristan Stubbs (29) and Keshav Maharaj (2) were both caught near the boundary with less than a run-a-ball required before Marco Jansen held his nerve straight driving the first ball of the final over for six to finish unbeaten on 21 from 14 balls.

“We didn’t take care of the partnerships which would have allowed us to kill the game off, we tried to kill it too early, but that’s been the story of our competition, getting ourselves into tricky positions and then, by hook or by crook, get ourselves over the line.

“We’re very chuffed with the win and to get through to the semis, it’s massive for us, but moving forward we hope we can avoid those tricky situations,” Markram said.

On the positive side, Tabraiz Shamsi’s 3-27 headlined a fine bowling performance which featured 12 overs of spin with Markram 1-28 and Maharaj 1-24 also in the wickets.

“We bowled really well to start with and then kept it going to restrict them to what I would say was a below-par total (135-8). But with the bat we just tried to kill the game too early, we need to understand that you earn that right, bat a few overs, build a partnership and get into a position of strength to kill the game off,” Markram said.

“I’m a big fan of guys wanting to take the game on, but you have to weigh it up on the night and tonight we maybe just peaked a bit early, but we’ll take the learning from it and hopefully not make the same mistake again.”

Player of the match, Shamsi, also confessed to an uncomfortable time waiting to bat: “I’m sweating and I wasn’t even out there, it was nervy at the end but that’s been the theme of our tournament, we’re finding a way to win as team no matter what the situation is, and this was another one of those,” Shamsi said.

“Our supporters would probably like bigger wins but things like this keep us in check. When the pressure hits, the team has been able to overcome all these moments,” Shamsi said.

India, Australia or Afghanistan will be the Proteas’ opponents in the last four.

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