Heinrich Klaasen, Miller, Maharaj and Rabada all had a hand in helping them win by four runs over Bangladesh to advance to the Super 8s in T20I World Cup 2024. South Africa were 23 for 4, but a record 79-run fifth-wicket stand between Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller took them to 113, which they scrapped hard to defend.
Coming in to bat at No. 5 when the chips were down, Heinrich Klaasen scored 46 off 44 and was aptly named the Player of the Match, his knock featuring 2 fours and 3 sixes. Heinrich Klassen’s innings saw him bat in different gears: he was defensive against the seamers early on before chancing his arms against the spin of Rishad Hossain and reaping rewards. Heinrich Klassen’s partnership with David Miller ensured that South Africa didn’t lose any wicket in the middle overs (7-15), which helped them set a target worth bowling for.
Pitch and Toss
Playing on the same surface as yesterday and it hasn’t fully settled down yet. It will be better for the bowlers, they need to bowl a bit back of length, a little bit shorter than Test match length and force the batters to hit square of the wicket. Bowling those hard lengths and having people hit square towards the longer boundaries will be difficult.
South African skipper Aiden Markram won the toss and chose to bat first with no changes in his playing XI. Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hasan Shanto who also wanted to bowl first made one change bringing in Jaker Ali for Soumya Sarkar.
Tanzim Sakib blows SA away in the PowerPlay
As if making South Africa rethink their decision to bat first almost immediately, Tanzim Sakib struck thrice in the first six overs and reduced them to 25/4 at the end of it. It happened to be South Africa’s third lowest PowerPlay score in T20 World Cups despite the intent and aggression from Quinton de Kock, who got going with a 6 and a 4 in the first over of the innings but couldn’t keep at it for too long; he was bowled in the third over by Sakib who got one to keep low.
Reeza Hendricks, in turn, fell in Sakib’s first over by an incoming delivery whereas Tristan Stubbs poked one to cover. In the middle of all this mayhem from one end, Taskin Ahmed struck from the other with the prized wicket of Aiden Markram, who was undone and bowled by seam movement.
For all the talk about the power of their batting line-up, South Africa’s top three have underperformed thus far, albeit on tough batting surfaces. Collectively, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks and Markram have scored 61 runs in nine trips to the crease at an average of 6.77. Of teams that have played at least two matches at the tournament, only Uganda and PNG average lower.
The biggest concern will be Hendricks, whose scores of 4, 3 and 0 are the lowest of the trio, and whose methods of dismissal appear to show a technical deficiency. Twice in two games, Hendricks has been stuck in his crease and then played down the wrong line. He’ll be looking over his shoulder knowing fellow opener Ryan Rickelton is waiting on the bench, and could get an opportunity in the next match.
Things got even worse when Tristan Stubbs was dismissed for a duck in the fifth over. South Africa have only lost their first four wickets by end of the fifth over on five occasions in men’s T20Is, and two of them came in this competition. Happily for them, they had Heinrich Klaasen and Miller on hand to shore up the mid-section of the innings.
Heinrich Klaasen and Miller rebuild in the middle overs
After an indifferent PowerPlay that saw South Africa put together three 1-run overs, the middle overs were a little kinder. While the scoring rate remained slow, the wickets didn’t tumble at all during this phase of the innings, thanks to Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller who got together and put on a solid partnership that helped South Africa somewhat recover.
Heinrich Klaasen took on leg spinner Rishad Hossain with a couple of sixes in the 10th over, delivering South Africa to 57/4 at the halfway mark in the innings while Miller tried his hand against the pacers and managed to clear the fence off Mustafizur Rahman’s bowling. It of course didn’t help that Miller was dropped on 13 by Litton Das behind the wickets, the bowler being Mahmudullah.
After Tanzim Hasan (3 for 18) set the tone with wickets upfront, Taskin Ahmed took charge of the latter stages, helped by Rishad Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman. Between them, the trio gave away just 13 runs in the last three overs of South Africa’s innings, and removed both danger batters Heinrich Klaasen and Miller in a clutch display of death bowling.
Heinrich Klaasen was dismissed halfway through the 18th over, when he slogged across the line but was early on his shot, and the low bounce took the ball onto leg stump. Taskin only conceded three singles off the rest of that over to finish with 2 for 19 from his four overs.
Bangladesh hold back SA to 113 for 6 in 20 overs
It may have been a gamble to use leg spinner Rishad for the penultimate over, especially when his previous three cost 28 runs, but he knocked Miller out with a topspinner second ball, and Maharaj could not get him away. Rishad’s final over cost just four. Then came the Fizz, who took the ball away from Maharaj for four consecutive dots before a fifth went wide and was called as such. The batters scored three runs off the last two balls and were frustrated by their inability to score any boundaries in the last three overs.
The final flourish never came for South Africa. Maybe it was never coming on another tacky pitch at the venue. The only time South Africa could go past the boundary cushions was when Heinrich Klaasen managed to hit a six off Mahmudullah but soon after, he couldn’t keep out a low-bouncing straight ball from Taskin.
In the next over, the penultimate of the innings, Miller missed a slog-sweep against Rishad and was bowled. The phase also saw Sakib bowl out early and finish with fantastic figures of 3 for 18. Only 13 runs came off the final three overs as South Africa were restricted to 113/6 in 20 overs.
Bangladesh minimize damage in the Powerplay
Losing only one wicket against the new ball, and on that kind of a pitch, gave the head start to Bangladesh in the run-chase. Marco Jansen kick-started the proceedings with the ball with a neat one-run over, something which Kagiso Rabada wasn’t able to double down on from the other end. Tanzid Hasan took the latter on with back to back boundaries, only to play one shot too many and edge behind to Rabada later in the over. Nazmul Hasan Shanto and Litton Das then worked their way through the PowerPlay with no more damage.
On his 35th birthday, Miller was given a gift when he edged the first ball Mahmudullah bowled. But Litton Das, who was standing up to the stumps, was unable to react quickly enough to take the catch. Miller was on 13 at the time and went on to more than double his score and finish on 29. But that wasn’t the end of the presents for him.
He was stationed at extra cover when Maharaj was brought on to bowl the first over after the powerplay, and Litton, not content with what he had already given Miller, slapped the ball straight to him. Miller made no mistake, and Bangladesh were 29 for 2 in the seventh over.
Tug of war between runs and wickets as Maharaj and Nortje strike
As soon as the fielding restrictions were done with, Maharaj came into the attack and struck with his first delivery, a full toss that had Litton caught at cover. Anrich Nortje then got into the act, getting the big wickets of Shakib Al Hasan and Shanto with short deliveries in back to back overs. For the next five overs, Mahmudullah and Towhid Hridoy consolidated and added a steady 33 runs, with the former even getting a reprieve on 10 at slip by Jansen.
Bangladesh can’t find the big hits as they lose to SA by 4 runs
Bangladesh had to get 20 runs off the last 18 balls, and after putting on the squeeze in that period would have expected it to be difficult but perhaps not this difficult. Kagiso Rabada bowled the 18th over, despite not being his best at the tournament so far. He only half-appealed when Hridoy missed an attempted clip to the leg side but was rewarded with a wicket first up. Rabada went on to concede only one more run in an over of hard lengths.
Then Baartman stepped up for the 19th, and stuck to a slightly fuller length which neither Mahmudullah nor Jaker could get away. He conceded seven runs. The test was when Maharaj, who has never done this job before, was left with the final six balls. He started with a wide. His second legal ball was a low full toss that Mahmudullah hit hard down the ground, but the slow outfield stopped it from getting to the rope. Jaker tried to send the next one over the rope but couldn’t clear long-on, and then Rishad managed a leg bye.
But the last two balls were both full tosses that should have been dispatched over the rope. However, Mahmudullah’s effort found Markram, while Taskin could only hit the final ball to cover to give South Africa a nervy anti-choke win.
31 runs were needed off the final five overs. Doable, very doable, especially with two well set batters out there. Nortje, who had ripped through Bangladesh’s middle over, was also done and dusted by the 16th over, finishing with figures of 2 for 17. But that’s when South Africa tightened the grip further and allowed only one boundary in the final five overs. Markram admirably kept the field up, denying Bangladesh easy singles.
Rabada, bowling the 18th over, conceded only 2 runs and picked the all important wicket of a well-set Hridoy (37 off 34) by trapping him in front. Ottniel Baartman then bowled the 19th over for 7 runs, leaving Maharaj to defend 11 runs in the final over. And he did that clumsily, getting away with three full tosses that Mahmudullah and Jaker Ali couldn’t find the boundary off. In fact, with 6 needed off 2 balls, Mahmudullah was caught meters inside the straight boundary by Markram, who took his fourth catch of the day in the outfield.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Najmul Hossain Shanto the loosing skipper said : We were bit nervous but we were confident we could get over the line but unfortunately it did not happen. (Tanzim Hasan) He worked really hard last couple of days, we wanted wickets with the new ball and he showed character today.
This is the match we should have won, last couple of overs they bowled really well. It can happen in cricket. (Rishad) He is very good, the way we bowled last couple of series, he practiced very hard. We’ve struggled with leg-spinners over the last 10-15 yrs so we’re lucky we got one. Hopefully he can continue. Thanks to all the supporters, hopefully they’ll come to the West Indies as well.
Aiden Markram the winning skipper said: You’re always going to be nervous in a final over finish like that. It can make you mentally quite tired but it’s great to be a part of games like these. (The catch) It could’ve gone anywhere but a few things went our way today so was great to be on the right side of that and get the win.
You want to drag the game out as long as you can, it’s all conditions dependent so we wanted to drag the game out. We put him under quite a bit of pressure but David (Miller) has done it back to back to get us to decent scores.
Heinrich Klassen Player of the Match for his innings of 46 runs said: That was not nice on the heart but good that we got over the line. The wicket is not too great for strokeplay. We got some good information from the last game and applied it today, we got a decent score. Luckily we’ve got experience in the change room, we almost had a One-Day mindset. Three pressure games now but I think we’re through so that’s good.
Popular for their lack of luck in ICC tournaments, South Africa have, finally managed to turn the tide. Last week they found themselves in a bit of pickle at 12/4, chasing 104 against Netherlands and today was no different either. Opting to bat, they lost their top 4 inside 5 overs pretty cheaply, but managed to clinch victory from the jaws of defeat. Much like their opponents, Bangladesh, too, lost their top 4 fairly cheaply and needed a partnership to put things back on track.
Towhid Hridoy and Mahmudullah got together for the 5th wicket and added 44 to steer Bangladesh close to the victory line. In fact, they needed just 20 off 18 with 6 wickets in hand. The 18th over from Rabada, however, shifted the balance completely as he managed to remove the dangerous-looking Hridoy and conceded just 2. With lack of pace options, Markram trusted Maharaj to do the job in the final over and thanks to his luck (3 full tosses), Proteas managed to steal the contest to make it 3/3 in the tournament.
Mahmudullah was on 15 when he was wrongly adjudged lbw (off Baartman) by Sam Nogajski. What’s crucial was that the ball deflected off Mahmudullah’s pads and trickled to the fine leg fence. Since it was declared out by the onfield umpire, the ball was deemed dead and the Bangladesh fans were very vocal in letting their disappointment known at that time.
5 balls later, Rabada hardly appealed for leg before and this time Hridoy was at the receiving end. The ball, according to ball tracker, went into clip leg bail (umpire’s call on hitting). Bangladesh fought really hard, but perhaps needed some of these aforementioned moments to go their way, but not to be.
South Africa survived an almighty scare to to maintain a 100% win-record at the T20 World Cup 2024, and in New York, where they chose to bat first in their final fixture at Eisenhower Park. On a used wicket, Aiden Markram decided to put a total on the board, and it almost looked like a mistake. South Africa were 23 for 4, but a record 79-run fifth-wicket stand between Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller took them to 113, which they scrapped hard to defend.
Bangladesh’s start was not ideal. They were 50 for 4 after ten overs, but Towhid Hridoy and Mahmudullah put on 44 for the fifth wicket and got them back on track. They almost also got them over the line and will look back on one incident which could have forced a Super Over. In the 17th over, Mahmudullah missed a flick off Ottniel Baartman, which hit his front pad and deflected to the boundary for what looked like four leg byes. But he was given out off that ball, which made it dead at the point of impact, and reviewed the decision.
Ball-tracking showed Mahmudullah was not out, but because he had been given out, the four runs did not count, as outlined by the ICC’s protocols on DRS (3.7.1) in the playing conditions for T20Is. In the end. Bangladesh fell short by four runs. That, and their inability to capitalize on Keshav Maharaj bowling the final over for the first time in T20Is and sending down three full tosses, cost them the game.
Maharaj was tasked with the final over after Markram bowled the seamers out earlier. It seemed a miscalculation, but he got two wickets as Bangladesh sought to clear the boundary though neither Jaker Ali nor Mahmudullah could. Mahmudullah was out on the penultimate ball – off a full toss – to a well-timed running catch by Markram from long-on, which all but ended Bangladesh’s hopes.
South Africa leave the USA with three wins from three matches, and will move to St. Vincent to play Nepal in their last group match. They are in pole position to qualify for the Super 8s. Bangladesh also head to the West Indies, and will play Netherlands and Nepal, with the Super 8s still in sight. Both South Africa and Bangladesh now travel to Kingstown, St Vincent for their next matches. South Africa play Nepal on Friday whereas Bangladesh take on Netherlands on Thursday.