South Africa captain Aiden Markram admits after the Bangladesh win that the match could be gone to either way but thy were fortunate enough to be on the right side.

South Africa beat Bangladesh by 4 runs in another low scoring thriller in New York on Monday (June 11) in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Tanzim Hasan Sakib ran riot through the South African top order to leave them reeling at 24-4. However, David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen depicted a comeback partnership to bring Proteas back into the game before Bangladesh pulled things back in the death overs. In reply, the bowlers of South Africa showed their class to hand Proteas a 4 run narrow victory over Bangladesh.

Bangladesh needed 11 runs off 6 balls in the chase. Spinner Keshav Maharaj came to bowl the last over of the innings. Maharaj bowled a full toss ball in the fifth ball of the over when Bangladesh needed 6 runs off 2 balls and Mahmudullah Riyad was on strike. But unluckily, Riyad was unable to clear the rope and Markram took the catch at long on just before the boundary.

“You're always pretty nervous in the final over in a game like that. It was always on a knife's edge, it can make you mentally tired. It's always nice to be in them though. Sometimes you get on the right side, sometimes not, but it's very entertaining. 19.5 (full toss) could've gone anywhere, could've gone two more metres further and we'd have had a different conversation. Like I mentioned, a few things went our way today, very fortunate on that to get on the right side,” Markram said.

Markram reveals that they wanted to drag the match as much as possible and that’s why pacers were bowling and Maharaj was given the last over. “Depends on the situation, you want to drag the game as long as you can, so you use quicks to attack. Today was one of those days where the seamers were bowling well, we wanted to drag it to the end where anything could happen in the last over.” Markram added.

Miller and Klaasen made a 79-run partnership for fifth wicket and gave South Africa a fighting total of 113 runs in the matches. Markram praises both the batter after the match. “We're putting Klaasen and Miller under pressure but they've been exceptional. They've gone back-to-back with crucial partnerships, got us to a score that's luckily enough to win but still one we could defend. Fantastic for Klaasy to get back in form,” Markram concluded.