T20 World Cup 2026: Markram’s storm in Super 8, South Africa defeated West Indies in the 17th over.

In the Super-8 match of T20 World Cup 2026, South Africa completely defeated West Indies and registered a big win by 9 wickets. In this match played at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad, the African team achieved the target of 177 runs by losing one wicket in just 16.1 overs. With this victory, South Africa has reached the top of Group-1.

 Markram-de Kock’s stormy start

Captain Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock gave a great start to the South African team chasing the target. Both of them added 95 runs in just 48 balls for the first wicket and completely changed the course of the match. De Kock was out after scoring 47 runs in 24 balls, but by then the team was in a strong position.

 Markram’s captaincy brilliance

After De Kock was out, Markram along with Ryan Rickelton made an unbroken partnership of 82 runs for the second wicket. Markram remained unbeaten after scoring 82 runs in 46 balls. His innings included 7 fours and 4 sixes. Rickelton sealed the victory by scoring 45 runs in 28 balls.

Holder-Shepherd took over the innings

Earlier, West Indies scored 176 runs losing 8 wickets in 20 overs. At one time the team had lost 7 wickets for 83 runs, but Jason Holder (49 runs) and Romario Shepherd (52* runs) made an important partnership of 89 runs to take the team to a respectable score. However, the performance of the rest of the batsmen was disappointing. For South Africa, Lungi Ngidi took 3 wickets, while Kagiso Rabada and Corbin Bosch took two wickets each. The bowlers had put West Indies under pressure in the beginning itself.

 Group situation and relief to India

With this victory, South Africa has reached first place in Super-8 Group-1 with 4 points and its net run rate has become +2.890. Team India has also got relief from the big defeat of West Indies. Now India will have to win both its remaining matches to reach the semi-finals. The good thing is that the pressure of net run rate is no longer as heavy as before. South Africa showed in this match why it is considered a strong contender for the title. Now it will be interesting to see how the remaining matches of Super-8 change the picture of the points table.