ICC T20 World Cup: South Africa defeat India by five wickets
David Miller hit an unbeaten half-century and the winning runs after Aiden Markram punished India’s fielding mistakes as South Africa won a see-saw match in Perth by five wickets to move top of Group 2 of the T20 Super 12 World Cup.
Markram (52 off 41) dropped Virat Kohli at deep midwicket for 35 while he would have been out one run later had Indian captain Rohit Sharma not missed the stumps from close range.
Lost in the 16th over against South Africa, Markram needed another 34 runs from 27 balls to put India in the lead at 133-9. His dismissal ended a fourth-wicket stand of 76 off 60 balls with Miller (59 off 46) after the Proteas were 24 in the sixth over at -3.
But Miller led his team home and eased the pressure a bit when he blasted Ravichandran Ashwin for back-to-back sixes in the 18th over before hitting Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s convincing drive off the fourth ball of the final over.
South Africa needed six off six balls at the start of the 20th over, but Wayne Parnell’s dot and single was followed by Miller with a short ball down the leg side for four before clipping another cover.
Victory in South Africa leaves them unbeaten and on five points from three matches – their other results being rain against Zimbabwe and a 104-run demolition of Bangladesh – with India in second place after suffering their first defeat of the campaign, which began with a win over Pakistan and the Netherlands.
