‘We would’ve liked to have been more convincing’: Proteas captain Markram

Though relieved his team won another close game, and qualified for the semifinals of another ICC World Cup, Aiden Markram was certainly not getting carried away with the Proteas’ performance in their last Super Eight clash against the West Indies on Monday. 

The Proteas hung on for a three-wicket victory at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua in the early hours on Sunday in what was effectively a quarterfinal with the host nation, needing boundaries from Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen to get them over the line with five balls to spare. 

“I think we would have liked to have been a lot more convincing in getting the job done,” Markram said afterwards. 

“We didn’t take care of those partnerships to get us closer and kill the game. We were probably looking to kill the game too early.

“But that’s been the story of our competition. We get ourselves into tricky positions and then by hook or by crook we get over the line.”

It was a poorly managed run chase by the Proteas with the exception of one over in which Heinrich Klaasen struck three fours and a six off Gudakesh Motie, which appeared to turn the momentum in South Africa’s favour. 

A 75-minute rain delay saw the initial target of 136 reduced to 123 off 17 overs. Klaasen’s assault on Motie dropped the required rate to less than a run a ball, but after he was dismissed by a fierce bouncer by Alzarri Joseph, the Proteas panicked. 

Joseph, Andre Russell, who played what became his final match for West Indies, and off-spinner Roston Chase then dried up the runs. That pressure saw David Miller, usually composed, Tristan Stubbs, who’d shown maturity in making 29 off 27 balls, and Keshav Maharaj all dismissed with ill-judged shots.

“I’m a big fan of guys wanting to take the game on and to kill it early, but we have to weigh it up on the night and tonight we peaked a little early,” Markram said.

Fortunately Rabada, with a great cover drive off Chase, and Jansen with a very cool lofted straight drive that went for six off the last ball of the final over, showed the kind of composure that was missing a few moments earlier. 

Once more South Africa’s bowlers impressed but credit deserves to go the way of skipper Markram, who changed plans at the end of his first over. Looking to “buy” an over in the power play, given the selection of the extra spinner in Tabraiz Shamsi, Markram claimed the vital wicket of Nicholas Pooran with his first ball. 

“Having left out the seamer [Ottneil Baartman], we felt we needed a few extra overs of spin in the power play and immediately it started spinning. That’s when I felt we needed to bowl as much spin as we could on this track. The wicket was helping us,” the South African captain said.

Between them, Markram, Maharaj and Shamsi bowled 12 overs, combining for figures of 5/79, and also 32 dot balls. 

“You adapt on the day. If it hadn't spun, we’d have backed the quicks. A guy like 'KG' [Rabada] only bowled two overs, which speaks volumes about how the pitch was playing.

“You wing it out there and see how far it gets you,” Markram said about the change in gameplan. 

South Africa finished top of their Super Eight pool and remain unbeaten after seven matches in the tournament, qualifying for the semifinals of the T20 World Cup for the first time since the 2014 competition. They will only know their semifinal opponent and the venue for that encounter at the conclusion of Afghanistan's match with Bangladesh on Tuesday (2.30am SA time).

Markram said he hasn’t watched any games in the other Super Eight pool, which also features Australia and India, and didn’t care who his team faced in the semifinal.

“We haven't played our best game of cricket yet so we’d like to put our best game together for that semi.”