Heinrich Klaassen scored a run-out off the last delivery to help South Africa remain unbeaten in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and eliminate Nepal from the possibility of qualifying for the Super Eights by beating the Asian team by one run in St Vincent on Friday.
Needing two runs off the last ball to keep their hopes of progressing to the Super Eight alive, the match looked headed towards a Super Over, but Klaassen kept his cool to get Gursan Jha out at the non-striker’s end.
It was a brutal end for Nepal, who had controlled most of the thrilling match with their spinners dominating with the ball to reduce South Africa to 115/7 before their top-order fought back to take the score to 85/2 in the 14th over, putting the required score within reach.
However, South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi (4/19) turned the tide for the Proteas and pace duo Anrich Nortje (1/27) and Ottoneil Baartmann (0/20) kept their cool in the final two overs as South Africa denied Nepal their first international win against a full ICC member team.
South Africa were far from their best for much of their match against Nepal and will need to improve in the next stage of the tournament if they want to compete on equal terms with the better teams.
Opener Reeza Hendricks (43) was the only player to spend significant time in the middle-order while Tristan Stubbs (27* off 18 balls) was the only batsman to reach a strike-rate above 100 as Nepal’s spinners dominated and the Proteas posted a total just over 100.
Kushal Bhurtel (4/19) and Dipendra Singh Irey (3/21) shared seven wickets between them and Nepal’s chase looked well under control until Shamsi’s late efforts left them needing eight runs in the final over.
Gulsan hit a boundary off the third ball of the final over, but Klaassen produced the winning play in the final over to give South Africa the victory.