South Africa captain Aiden Markram expresses relief after qualifying for the semifinals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

South Africa beat West Indies by 3 wickets to seal their spot for the semi-final of ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024. Tabraiz Shamsi bowled another superb spell, where he picked up 3 wickets to restrict West Indies to a paltry 135 runs. In reply, South Africa got scared but eventually chased down the target to reach the semifinal.

However, Markram admits that they have to be more convinced with the bat. South Africa wanted to kill the game early in the chase but they lost too many wickets and failed to build any significant partnership. Markram points out that and says that they have to learn it from here.

“A lot of relief to get through to the semi-final. Not going to be brain-washed by that. We would have liked to be more convincing with bat in hand. After the rain break, the wicket was playing nicely. Did not get the partnerships to then kill the game. Tried to kill it too early. Massive for us and fantastic for the change room but hopefully we can avoid those tricky situations. Just appreciating and understanding the need to build partnerships. Big fan of trying to kill the game early but tonight, we just did that a little early and a good lesson to learn from today. Hopefully we do not repeat that,” Markram said.

Markram praises the bowling unit and says that they wanted to have more spinners in the match as the wicket had the assistance for the spinners.

“I thought we bowled really well, assessed conditions and kept them to a sub-par total. The bowling unit has been firing for us, which has been fantastic. We picked Shamsi, wanting to have a mystery spinner. We identified a possible opportunity. Wanted some spin in the powerplay and saw it turn. Wanted as much spin as possible (thereafter) and bowled as many overs of spin. When KG only bowls two overs, it speaks of how the wicket played,” Markram added.