South Africa beat Nepal by 1 run in a low scoring thriller on Saturday (15th June). Reeza Hendricks' scratchy knock of 42 off 49 balls and then Tabraiz Shamsi's four wicket-haul helped South Africa overcome Nepal's challenge.

Tabraiz Shamsi
Being asked to bat first, South Africa had another poor display with the bat. The condition had a lot of purchase for the bowlers and Nepali spinners had made the most of it. Their spinners kept things slow and tight.
The protea batters have had slowish starts and couldn’t convert them into big totals. Only Reeza Hendricks held fort for South Africa but couldn’t force the pace against Nepali spinners as he fell to Dipendra Singh Airee on 43 off 49 deliveries.

At the backend of the innings, Tristan Stubbs played a little but effective cameo of 27 off 18 balls which helped South Africa cruise pass 100 runs and post 115 on the board.

Kushal Bhurtel was the pick of the bowlers as he had a four wicket-haul. While Dipendra Singh Airee had three wickets to his name to restrict South Africa to a below par total of 115.

In reply, Nepal started well and stitched a 35 run opening partnership which gave Nepal a solid foundation. Tabraiz Shamsi came and picked up two wickets in an over and turned the match around for South Africa.

But Anrich Nortje's 11th over, where he conceded 12 runs and in the next over Nepal took 9 runs to reduce the target to 47 off last 8 overs. In the next over, Rabada gave away 13 runs and Nepal needed 34 off last 42 deliveries.

Anil Sah and Aasif Sheikh strung together for a 50 run stand off 36 deliveries and took the game away from South Africa. Nepal were strolling towards the target and they needed 18 off the last three overs to win.

But Shamsi had another fantastic over and took two wickets to bring proteas back. Sompal Kami hit a 105m six and they needed 8 off last over to make the history.

Gulshan Jha consumed first two balls and hit a boundary in the third delivery and then took a couple in the next ball and a dot came up to leave them needing 2 off the last over and couldn’t take one run off the last ball and lost the game by 1 run.