Markram, Dussen power South Africa to easy win over Windies

DUBAI: Aiden Markram's blazing, unbeaten fifty powered South Africa to an easy eight-wicket victory over the West Indies in the T20 World Cup Super 12s match, in Dubai, on Tuesday.

The victory enabled the South Africans get back on track after the five-wicket defeat to Australia in their opening match.

The West Indies suffered their second reverse following the six-wicket loss to England in their opener.

South Africa will next play Sri Lanka in their third Group 1 fixture on October 30, while the West Indies take on Bangladesh a day earlier.

It was a fine all-round performance from South Africa. They first weathered opener Evin Lewis's (56) onslaught to restrict the West Indies to 143 for 8 and then rode on solid batting from Markram (51 not out off 26 balls), Rassie van der Dussen (43 not out off 51) and Reeza Hendricks (39) to comfortably chase down the target with 10 balls to spare.

Contrary to the end result, South Africa did not have the best of starts to their chase, as they lost skipper Temba Bavuma to a run-out in the first over, after just four runs were on the board.

But Hendricks, who replaced Quinton de Kock -- who dropped out of the match for 'personal reasons' after the team was directed to take a knee in their remaining matches of the tournament -- and van der Dussen propped the innings with a 57-run second-wicket stand.

After Hendricks's dismissal, van der Dussen and Markram carried South Africa forward and brought down the equation to 44 off the last six overs.

Earlier, Lewis smashed a breezy half-century before the West Indies lost the plot and were restricted to a modest 143 for 8.

Lewis (56) and Lendl Simmons (16) got the West Indies off to a flier, putting on 73.

Shamsi was taken to task by West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard and Chris Gayle, hitting the left-arm spinner for a six each in the 16th over.

Gayle's run-a-ball 12 knock was cut short by Dwaine Pretorius before Andre Russell was cleaned up by Nortje in the next over.

Shimron Hetmyer was run out a ball later to compound the West Indies problems.

Pollard scored 26 off 20 balls but failed to up the scoring towards the end.

For Proteas, Dwaine Pretorius (3/17) scalped three wickets. Keshav Maharaj (2/24) picked two, while Kagiso Rabada (1/27), Anrich Nortje (1/14) took one each.

Brief Scores: West Indies 143/8 (Lewis 56, Pollard 26; Pretorius 3-17) vs South Africa 144/2 (Aiden Markram 51*, Rassie van der Dussen 43*; Akeal Hosein 1-27). Agencies

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