AHMEDABAD: South Africa are on the brink of reaching the Twenty20 World Cup’s Super Eights stage after captain Aiden Markram’s storming half-century led them to a dominant seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Saturday, securing their third straight Group ‘D’ win.

New Zealand suffered their first loss in the campaign after they posted 175-7, as South Africa’s Marco Jansen took four wickets.

In response, opener Markram hit four sixes and eight boundaries in his unbeaten knock of 86 off 44 balls, the highest by a South African captain in the event’s history, helping his team reach 178-3 with 17 balls to spare.

South Africa chose to bowl first, and it immediately paid off as player of the match Jansen (4-40) dismissed most of New Zealand’s top order early.

Finn Allen (31) tried to mitigate the damage after Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra fell to Jansen. But Jansen got Allen caught at in the sixth over, leaving New Zealand reeling at 58-3.

Mark Chapman (48) and Daryl Mitchell (32) turned things around with a 74-run partnership for the fifth wicket, until Jansen got Chapman caught by Ryan Rickelton in the 14th.

New Zealand scored only 17 runs in the next four overs, until James Neesham’s unbeaten 23 off 15 got them to a fighting total.

Chasing 176, South Africa got off to a flying start with Markram hitting three sixes and five boundaries to steer his team to 62-0 in four overs.

Losing fellow opener Quinton de Kock (20) did not affect Markram, who hit Mitchell Santner for a six down long on to reach his half-century in just 19 balls. By the time Rickelton (21) fell in the eighth over, South Africa had already crossed the 100-run mark.

David Miller (24 not out) cleared the mid-wicket boundary to bring up the victory.

SCOREBOARD

NEW ZEALAND:

T. Seifert c de Kock b Jansen 13

F. Allen c Markram b Jansen 31

R. Ravindra c Miller b Jansen 13

G. Phillips b Maharaj 1

M. Chapman c Rickelton b Jansen 48

D. Mitchell c Stubbs b Ngidi 32

M. Santner c Rickelton b Bosch 4

J. Neesham not out 23

M. Henry not out 9

EXTRA (LB-1) 1

TOTAL (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 175

DID NOT BAT: L. Ferguson, J. Duffy

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-33 (Seifert), 2-57 (Ravindra), 3-58 (Allen), 4-64 (Phillips), 5-138 (Chapman), 6-141 (Mitchell), 7-145 (Santner)

BOWLING: Ngidi 4-0-34-1, Rabada 4-0-27-0, Jansen 4-0-40-4, Maharaj 3-0-24-1, Bosch 4-0-34-1, Markram 1-0-15-0

SOUTH AFRICA:

A. Markram not out 86

Q. de Kock b Ferguson 20

R. Rickelton c Mitchell b Neesham 21

D. Brevis c Mitchell b Ravindra 21

David Miller not out 24

EXTRAS (W-6) 6

TOTAL (for three wickets, 17.1 overs) 178

DID NOT BAT: T. Stubbs, C. Bosch, M. Jansen, K. Rabada, K. Maharaj, L. Ngidi

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-62 (de Kock), 2-102 (Rickelton), 3-131 (Brevis)

BOWLING: Henry 4-0-38-0, Ferguson

3.1-0-33-1 (2w), Duffy 3-0-50-0 (2w), Santner 4-0-33-0 (2w), Neesham 2-0-15-1, Ravindra 1-0-9-1

RESULT: South Africa won by seven wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Aiden Markram

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2026