T20 World Cup: De Kock, Markram Help South Africa Post 194/4 Against USA
The USA, who were the team of the preliminary round after storming into the Super 8 stage on debut by stunning Pakistan, put the mighty proteas in to bat first on winning the toss and the South Africans came up with a fine innings to post a challenging total. The co-hosts had early success when Saurabh Netravalkar had Reeza Hendricks hitting it straight into the hands of Corey Anderson at mid-off.
So, it was left to De Kock to push on with the assistance of Aiden Markram, hitting a brilliant 74 off 40 balls -- including seven fours and five sixes. He reached his half-century off 27 balls. He was eventually removed by a smartly delivered full toss from Harmeet Singh, caught by Shayan Jahangir. he and Markram raised 110 runs for the second wicket to take South Africa past the 110-run mark.
And Harmeet struck again with the next ball, catching new batter David Miller off his own bowling, and making the scoreline 126/3 with a little more than seven overs remaining.
Markram was next to fall after a solid 46 off 32 balls, caught by a flying Ali Khan off Netravalkar. Then Tristan Stubbs and Heinrich Klaasen formed an effective partnership for the last five overs, putting on a valuable 53 between them.
Netravalkar claimed 2-21 while Harmeet 2-24 to prevent the South Africans from going berserk in the middle.
Brief scores:
South Africa 194/4 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 74, Aiden Markram 46, Heinrich Klaasen 36 not out; Saurabh Netravalkar 2-21, Harmeet Singh 2-24) against the USA.