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Highlights
Nagpur: West Indies captain Darren Sammy has said that the team’s main objective coming into Friday’s match against South Africa was to qualify for the World T20 semifinals and he was delighted to have accomplished the task. (West Indies Seal Spot in Semis, India and Australia To Fight it Out for Other Spot)
In-form West Indies continued their unbeaten run and defeated South Africa by three wickets to seal their spot in the semifinals of the ICC World Twenty20.
With three wins out of as many games, West Indies became the second team, after New Zealand, to enter the semifinals of the marquee event. (Australia, India Match a Virtual Knock-Out For Semi-Final)
“Yes, I was smiling because of the position the game was in, but there were butterflies in there. We came here to win this match and qualify, and we’ve done that, so we’re really happy,” said Sammy.
Sammy praised his teammates for holding on to their nerves under pressure while chasing South Africa’s 122 for eight.
“Today we were under pressure chasing a low total, and every decision we took out there, they (players) responded. But I really want to commend my team on (how team coped with the pressure),” he said.
South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis said they were not at their best and played catch-up in the entire match at Mohali.
“It felt like in the whole game we were half a step behind the West Indies and we were trying to catch up the whole time,” he said.
“Ten runs maybe more from the batters – 135 deck. But a great fight by the boys. This game makes us all very old, very quickly. West Indies were just a little bit better than us today.”
Man-of-the-match Marlon Samuels, who scored a run-a-ball 44 for the West Indies, said it was difficult to play shots on the pitch and credited South African bowlers for putting up a fight.
“Sometimes you have to bat according to situation. The pitch was a bit on the slow side, but credit to South Africa. They bowled in good areas,” he said.
Source: NDTV