Not near our best: Markram wants Proteas to learn after narrow win vs Nepal

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jun 15, 2024 09:25 IST

Aiden Markram said that South Africa were far from their best when they faced Nepal in a thrilling Group D encounter in the T20 World Cup. On Saturday, the Proteas beat Rohit Paudel’s team by 1 run at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St Vincent. After being asked to bat first, South Africa scored 115 for the loss of 7 wickets on the back of Reeza Hendricks’ 43-run knock in challenging conditions.

Nepal were in the hunt for the most part of the run-chase before falling short. Tabraiz Shamsi finished with figures of 4-0-19-4 and helped his team snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. After the game, Markram said that his team will be looking to get better after somehow getting over the finish line against Nepal.

South Africa vs Nepal, T20 World Cup Highlights

‘Not enough conviction in our plans’

“Very grateful to have got the win, we were not near our best tonight. Reflecting back on the game over the next few days, there will be a lot of learnings for us. We have a good pace attack and you want to back that. I thought if we got the ball in the right areas, it would be challenging for the batters. In hindsight, we should have picked another spinner,” Markram said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Markram also had words of praise for Nepal, who fell short of securing their maiden win over a Test-playing nation in the history of the T20 World Cup.

“First and foremost, the way [Nepal] bowled it made it really tough for us. They put us under a lot of pressure. And maybe there was not enough conviction in our plans,” Markram added.

With the win, South Africa finished on top of the table in their group with 8 points and a net run rate of +0.470 thanks to wins in all 4 of their matches.