De Kock leads SA to 18-run victory over USA

NORTH SOUND:

Quinton de Kock scored a thrilling half-century as South Africa defeated the struggling United States by 18 runs in their first T20 World Cup second-round match on Wednesday.

The Proteas scored 194-4 from their 20 overs after getting started before restricting the US to 176-6 as the Super Eights leg got underway at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

However, the US, who stunned former champions Pakistan in the first round, came close to another disappointment when Andries Gous (80 not out) and Harmeet Singh (38) put on 91 for the sixth wicket.

Opening batsman De Kock, his country’s leading runmaker in this format, reached his 15th T20 international fifty off 26 balls.

He was eventually dismissed for 74 with seven fours and five sixes in an innings of 40 balls, which was comfortably his best performance of the tournament.

In four previous visits to the crease at the World Cup, the 31-year-old had a best of just 20 against Sri Lanka.

“We’ve had some tough wickets so it was nice to spend some time in the middle today. The USA put us under pressure towards the end. It was a great match,” said De Kock after South Africa struggled had to score runs on the slow US wickets in the first round. American skipper Aaron Jones admitted it was a “difficult result to achieve”.

“We lacked discipline in our bowling at times. Once we play good cricket, we can beat any team in the world. But we have to be much more disciplined,” he said.

Skipper Aiden Markram also hit his tournament best of 46 from 32 balls with four boundaries and a six.

Markram and De Kock scored 110 for the second wicket, helping their team reach 101-1 after the first 10 overs.

The slow left-arm Harmeet brought the United States back into the match by eliminating De Kock and fellow dangerman David Miller (0) in two balls.

Markram’s innings was ended by impressive fast bowler Saurabh Netravalkar who finished with 2-21 from his four overs.

Heinrich Klaasen (36 not out) and Tristan Stubbs (20 not out) added an unbeaten 53 for the fifth wicket.