Aiden Markram’s 82 not out led South Africa to a nine wicket victory over West Indies that, while not confirming his side’s semi-final place just yet, underlined why many believe the Proteas could finally lift the T20 World Cup. In this meeting of the last two unbeaten sides at this tournament, South Africa were ruthless, maintaining their 100 per cent record with 23 balls to spare.

Markram’s third half-century of the tournament – his 22nd fifty-plus score in T20Is – made light work of a 177 chase. He and Quinton de Kock put on 95, their highest opening stand of the tournament, skewering whatever belief West Indies had picked up at the back end of a first innings that started disastrously.

Inserted on a tacky-looking Ahmedabad surface, West Indies were 83 for 7 in the 11th over, before a record T20I stand of 89 for the eighth wicket between Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd.

Lungi Ngidi (3 for 30) and Kagiso Rabada’s (2 for 22) were the chief architects of the early stages of that collapse, with Corbin Bosch (2 for 31) also chiming in, profiting from batters’ unrelenting pursuit of boundaries.

Shepherd’s unbeaten 52 – a maiden T20I half-century, sealed with an inside edge for four off the final ball of the innings – and a well-managed 49 from Holder was a part change of tact. But even they focused on finding the fence throughout their 57 deliveries together rather than ticking over to bat time, even if West Indies were able to use all 20 overs.

South Africa were far from perfect, dropping four catches and being a little passive in the field. But they took it to West Indies’s bowlers. All six used by Shai Hope ended up wearing economy rates in double figures, as de Kock’s 47 off 24) and then Ryan Rickleton’s unbeaten 45 off 28 dovetailed neatly as left-handed foils to Markram’s belligerent march to the finish line.

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“I’m going to put it very simple: it’s hurtful, it’s painful and it’s shameful,” Farveez Mahroof,  the former Sri Lanka allrounder, said, pretty much summing up the mood among cricket fans in the island after their abject failure against New Zealand on Wednesday in Colombo. That it came after being bowled out for 95 by England and meant Sri Lanka’s T 20 World Cup 2026 was over just added to the sense of dejection.

“It’s not a pitch that you can play through the line, I get it. But the way some of the batters just gifted their wickets away, apart from Pathum Nissanka’s delivery [from Matt Henry], every other dismissal was a soft dismissal, giving the wickets away, just like the England game, where all ten were soft dismissals,” Maharoof said on ESPN Cricinfo TimeOut after the match. “Continuing the same trend into another game, a must-win game, shows Sri Lanka were not up to the mark with the bat.”

Nissanka has been Sri Lanka’s best batter in the tournament, and the main man in their win over Australia, when he slammed a 52-ball 100 not out. On Wednesday, Henry produced a peach to Nissanka first ball, and “whatever hopes that Sri Lanka had just vanished”.