Proteas players and Nepal batter Gulshan Jha look on during a DRS review for a runout in their pool match at the weekend. Picture: Matthew Lewis/ICC/Getty Images
The Proteas are all set to get the business end of the T20 World Cup under way when they take on co-hosts USA in the first match of the Super 8 phase at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Saint George, Antigua and Barbuda on Wednesday afternoon.
The pool stage comes to an end on Tuesday, but the Super 8 teams have already been decided, after Bangladesh were the final team to qualify for the next phase with a nervy win over Nepal early on Monday morning.
In all, two qualifiers from each of the four pools have moved into the Super 8s, which is split into two groups, with India, Australia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in group one and the Proteas, England and the two co-hosts, USA and the West Indies, in group two.
The top two teams from each Super 8 group will then qualify for the tournament semifinals, which will be played next week, followed by the final which will be battled out on Saturday 29 June.
The Proteas have flattered to deceive so far in the T20 World Cup, after winning all four of their pool stage games to head into the next round in high spirits.
However, their progress has been anything but smooth, having been pushed in every single game they played, including against minnows the Netherlands and Nepal.
Their top order and batting department as a whole have struggled, particularly on the notoriously bowler friendly drop-in pitch in New York, which they played their first three games on, but their switch to St Vincent in the West Indies didn’t change their batting fortunes as they struggled there as well.
Their most comfortable win was arguably their first when they opened their account by beating Sri Lanka by six wickets, but after brilliantly bowling them out for just 77, it took them 16.2 overs to chase the score down.
Against the Netherlands, who had beaten the Proteas in their last two meetings at World Cup tournaments, they restricted them to 103/9, and after being reduced to 12/4 early in the chase, eventually sealed a four-wicket win.
Arguably their biggest challenge against Bangladesh was next, and after choosing to bat they again were in deep trouble on 23/4 before making their way to 113/6 which proved to be enough as their bowlers secured a four-run win.
The biggest shock was still to come in the Proteas’ final pool game against the youngest team in the tournament, 18th-ranked Nepal, with the South Africans restricted to 115/7 batting first, before the South Asians faltered at the death to fall one run short on 114/7.
The Proteas now face much bigger challengers, against the buoyant USA, who surprisingly qualified for the Super 8s by knocking out Pakistan, as well as defending champs England, and the West Indies, who beat them 3-0 in a T20 series just before the World Cup.
They will thus hope that their bowlers continue to fire, while their batters sort out their issues, or they won’t make it to the semifinal stage.
SA v USA: Wednesday 19 June – 4.30pm
SA v England: Friday 21 June – 4.30pm
SA v West Indies: Monday 24 June – 2.30am
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