Markram, Jansen lead South Africa to brink of T20 Super Eights

AHMEDABAD: Captain Aiden Markam’s unbeaten 86 and 4-40 by Marco Jansen led South Africa to a seven-wicket thrashing of New Zealand on Saturday to all but book their Super Eights berth at the T20 World Cup.

Left-arm quick Jansen helped limit New Zealand to 175-7 in the top of the table clash in Group D in Ahmedabad.

South Africa ran riot in the six-over power play, racking up 83-1 to set up a comfortable chase of their 176 target.

David Miller finished it off with a massive winning six to take South Africa to 178-3 with 17 balls to spare for their third win in three games.

“I think it’s obviously important to acknowledge the fact that we got on the right side of the toss – the ball came on quite nicely in the second innings,” said Markram.

“But having said that, the boys still had to put in a massive effort, specifically with the ball, to restrict it to what they did. I thought it was a really good effort.”

South Africa and New Zealand are still favourites to advance as the top two in Group D, though United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan both retain an outside chance of going through.

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Markram came out roaring with a flurry of boundaries and raced to his fifty in 19 balls with a six off New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, his fourth of the innings.

He also hit eight fours in his unbeaten 44-ball innings.

South Africa lost Quinton de Kock, for 20, and Ryan Rickelton, for 21 off a good catch in the deep by Daryl Mitchell, but Markram looked fluent.

Dewald Brevis fell for 21 off Rachin Ravindra’s left-arm spin.

Fast bowler Lockie Ferguson dropped Markram on 69 off his own bowling to add to New Zealand’s woes.

Miller was unbeaten on 24 as he and Markram added an unbroken 47 to see their side home.

‘Bowled really well’

Earlier New Zealand started cautiously before Finn Allen, who hit 31 off 17 balls, took three fours and a six off Lungi Ngidi in the third over.

Tim Seifert joined the charge with a six off Jansen, but the left-arm quick hit back by having him caught behind for 13 from the next ball.

Jansen struck twice in his next over to dismiss Ravindra, for 13, and Allen in the space of four deliveries.

New Zealand slipped to 64-4 when Keshav Maharaj bowled Glenn Phillips, for one, with his left-arm spin.

Mitchell and Mark Chapman, who top scored with 48, then put together 74 runs for the fifth wicket to give New Zealand hope of reaching 200.

But South Africa’s move to bring back Jansen paid off as he denied Chapman a fifty with a slower delivery that the all-rounder sliced to backward point.

Jansen was named player of the match.

“He bowled really well tonight,” Mitchell said of Jansen’s bowling.

“Their bowlers, you can probably tell, they have played on this surface before a couple of times, their plans and how they operate.”

Mitchell fell for 32 and Santner for four before Jimmy Neesham ended the innings with successive fours in his 15-ball 23.