Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Kagiso Rabada celebrated with his South African teammates after taking the wicket of Nitish Kumar during the match against the United States.
CNN
—
The United States lost to South Africa in their opening match of the second round of the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup on Wednesday, but their historic run in the tournament continued.
The United States, who chose to bat first, were held back by South Africa’s aggressive batting, with the Proteas finishing with 194 runs from their 20 overs.
There were some promising moments from the US batting line-up, but they fell 18 runs short of South Africa’s score.
Despite the loss, the USA’s remarkable run in the tournament – which marked their T20 World Cup debut – is not over yet, with games against the West Indies and England still remaining at the Super Eights stage.
The eight teams that make it through the group stage of the Super 8 round of the T20 World Cup will be split into two sections to play a round-robin format, with the top two teams advancing to the semi-finals.
South Africa’s win over the United States marked the opening match of the Super 8 round. All 12 matches in the Super 8 stage will be played across four Caribbean islands: Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent.
The United States has been one of the stories of the T20 World Cup so far thanks to a shock win over Pakistan and a narrow defeat to India.
However, at the Super 8 stage, the quality steps up a notch and only the best teams earn the right to progress.
And that’s something the US experienced first-hand from the get-go in Antigua, with South Africa getting off to a strong start with opening batsman Quinton de Kock aggressively challenging the US bowlers.
The 31-year-old de Kock, who also serves as the team’s wicketkeeper, reached fifty in just 26 balls in the ninth over as South Africa scored more than a run per ball and reached 100 before the halfway point of the innings.
South Africa entered the Super 8 stage with a 100% winning record and kept on scoring but after a brilliant display from De Kock he was caught in the deep and fell for 74 off just 40 balls.
The Americans were even better off the next ball, when Harmeet Singh caught David Miller with his own delivery, putting the T20 World Cup debutants back into the match.
The United States picked up more wickets as South Africa tried to recover, with Proteas captain Aiden Markram being bowled for 46 off 32 balls by USA breakthrough star Saurabh Netravalkar.
However, thanks to the batting of Heinrich Klaassen and Tristan Stubbs, South Africa finished strongly and scored 194, meaning the USA faced a tough task of scoring 195 in 20 overs to secure a historic win.
In response, the USA got off to a strong start with opening batsman Steven Taylor, whose ability to hit big shots confounded the South African bowlers in the opening overs.
However, Taylor tried another big shot off a Kagiso Rabada delivery but it fell just short and into the waiting hands of Klaassen for the run out.
Rabada quickly picked up his second wicket of the match in the very next over, this time when Nitish Kumar batted Stubbs out, dealing a blow to America’s run-chase.
Jean Kruger/ICC/Getty Images
Steven Taylor will be batting against South Africa.
Captain Aaron Jones was next out off the spin bowling of Keshav Maharaj before former New Zealand international Corey Anderson was out off some powerful bowling from Anrich Nortje.
Despite a fine half-century from Andries Goos, regular losses of wickets thwarted any real hopes the US would come close to matching South Africa’s total.
They were unable to recover, with South Africa ultimately winning by 18 runs.
