South Africa defeat Nepal by one run in T20 World Cup thriller

South Africa survived a major scare from Nepal in scrambling a nerve-jangling one-run victory in their final Group D match of the T20 World Cup at the Arnos Vale Stadium in St Vincent on Friday.

T20 World Cup 2024 (Image Source: Google)

Sandeep Lamichhane, denied a visa to enter the United States which kept him out of the first two matches, went wicketless through four overs of South Africa’s innings but his mere presence seemed to lift his teammates after their captain, Rohit Paudel, won an important toss and put the Proteas in.

Already assured of a place in the Super Eight phase of the tournament and fully expecting to close out the group campaign with a fourth win in as many matches, none of the South African top-order were able to get on top of the bowling, although opener Reeza Hendricks managed to give the innings some sort of stability with a topscore of 43 off 49 balls (five fours, one six).

Nepal's bowlers were in their element throughout the innings with only a late effort by Tristan Stubbs (27 not out off 18 balls) causing them some concern before Bhurtel closed off the innings with the wickets of Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada off successive balls.

"I think I am very proud of the unit, especially the way we bowled and batted," Nepal captain Paudel said.

"I thought we fought very good. If we get more exposure to games like this, we will be on the other side."