ABU DHABI: Kagiso Rabada took 3-20 and skipper Temba Bavuma made an unbeaten 31 as South Africa beat Bangladesh by six wickets at the T20 World Cup on Tuesday to edge closer to the semi-finals.
Rabada and fellow quick Anrich Nortje shared six wickets between them to skittle out Bangladesh for 84 in 18.2 overs in Abu Dhabi.
South Africa lost four wickets but Bavuma steered the team home in 13.3 overs to boost their semi-final hopes with three wins from four Super 12 matches.
Bangladesh officially bowed out of the race for the final four after losing all their four matches.
South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma had won the toss and elected to bowl against Bangladesh.
The Proteas play the same team that beat Sri Lanka in the previous match to boost their chances of moving into the semi-finals from Group 1 led by unbeaten England.
“Good for our confidence. It is good that batting got us home,” Bavuma said on his team’s successful but tense chase against Sri Lanka.
“Looking at the wicket, we hope that it assists our bowlers. We would want to improve our fielding.”
Bangladesh had made two changes with Shamim Hossain and Nasum Ahmed coming in for Mustafizur Rahman, who has been rested, and Shakib Al Hasan, who was ruled out with hamstring injury.
Captain Mahmudullah Riyad said the team will play for pride after being effectively knocked out of the race for the semi-finals with three losses from three games.
“Still need to play for our pride and get wins under our belt,” said Mahmudullah.
“The three games we have played, we were close to winning in two of those games. We would like to play some good cricket.”
Teams
South Africa: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma (captain), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi.
Bangladesh: Mohammad Naim, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah (captain), Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed.
