South Africa 209/5 (20/20 ov)
Afghanistan 172 (20/20 ov)
South Africa won by 37 runs
An unconvincing South Africa survived a spirited Afghanistan chase to defend a 200-plus score and get their World Twenty20 campaign back on track. In the absence of Dale Steyn, who was left out for tactical reasons, Chris Morris and Imran Tahir squeezed through the middle period to ensure AB de Villiers' quickfire 64 was not in vain.
Afghanistan's second loss means their chances of progressing to the knockouts are all but over, but they have showed their promise. They kept up with the required run-rate for the first half of their innings and were ahead of where South Africa were at the same stage in their knock, but lost too many wickets to keep going. Afghanistan also did not have a 17th over like South Africa did; de Villiers took 29 runs off Rashid Khan, which ended up being the major difference between the two sides.
In the end, South Africa will be relieved that they were able to defend their total, but disappointed that the margin of victory was not bigger. They tightened up on their discipline in the field but still gave away more extras than their opposition - six wides compared to two from Afghanistan - and did not show the kind of killer instinct that they will need later in the tournament.
They also suffered an injury concern. JP Duminy left the field four balls into Afghanistan's chase with a hamstring strain and was unable to take any further part in the match. Duminy has only just found form again and his availability will be important for the rest of the World T20.
As the same venue where they posted 229 batting first on Friday night, South Africa chose to set a target again. Quinton de Kock picked up from where he left off two days ago and dominated the opening passages of play. De Kock faced all but one delivery in the first two overs and found the boundary five times. Hashim Amla may have wanted to catch up but after one four, gifted a catch to Asghar Stanikzai at mid-off.
South Africa held de Villiers back and sent in Faf du Plessis at No.3. The strategy worked. Du Plessis took on the spin from Mohammad Nabi while de Kock continued to attack in the Powerplay. South Africa finished it on 66 for 1 and 60 of those runs came in boundaries.
When the fielding restrictions were lifted, Rashid put the brakes on with the first boundary-less over of the innings, but du Plessis did not want things to slow down too much. He picked up the pace before being run-out and de Villiers was soon at the crease.
Afghanistan were not under threat immediately while de Villiers settled in and de Kock nicked off. After conceding just 19 runs in three overs after the halfway stage of the South African innings, Afghanistan might have been hopeful of pulling South Africa even further back. But Duminy and de Villiers were wise to the need to accelerate and began to push for runs.
De Villiers should have been caught for 27 when he offered Samiullah Shenwari a return catch but he could not hold on his follow through and Rashid suffered most. He was torn apart in his final over, when de Villiers went over midwicket and down the ground five times. The result? Six, four, six, six and six. South Africa's total went meandering to mighty and 200-plus was within sight. It was up to David Miller to take them there after de Villiers was dismissed. Twenty runs off the final over ensured South Africa had a second straight 200-plus score.
South Africa would have felt fairly safe with 209 on the board, especially as Afghanistan two previous scores over 210 were only achieved batting first, but Mohammad Shahzad threatened to gun down that total all by himself. He began fearlessly against Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott and plundered 32 runs off the first two overs. His partner Noor Ali Zadran did not face a ball until the third over and then, it was only to return the strike to Shahzad.
Morris was brought on in the fourth over and showed improvement from previous performances. He started by holding his length back but then steamed in with a delivery just under 150kph - full and straightening - which splayed Shahzad's stumps.
Asghar Stanikzai and was caught behind in Morris' next over but Gulbadin Naib kept Afghanistan in it and targeted David Wiese, South Africa's replacement for Steyn. Afghanistan reached 10 overs on 103 for 2, 11 runs ahead of where South Africa were at the same stage. Then, Gulbadin was caught behind, Noor Ali was stumped, and Afghanistan were wobbling, still needing 100 runs off eight overs. Their chase was over then and South Africa had the chance to drill home an advantage.
Instead, they allowed Afghanistan to drag it out. Abbott and Morris got the yorker right more often than they did in previous matches and Rabada managed one at the end, but South Africa will not feel it was a complete performance by any means.
Sri Lanka 122/9 (20/20 ov)
West Indies 127/3 (18.2/20 ov)
West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
Samuel Badree sticks out in this West Indies team. He has a neat little side parting. He does not have rippling muscles. He celebrates a wicket almost out of courtesy. And all of his wickets tonight in Bangalore came as a result of his inviting the batsmen to make a mistake. Sri Lanka rsvp-ed like crazy. Badree's 3 for 12 laid the foundation to a comfortable victory over the defending champions.
Much of Badree's success comes from his accuracy. So it was almost surprising to see him bowl one wide at the new batsman Lahiru Thirimanne, until Thirimanne sliced it straight to point. Chamara Kapugedera raced down the pitch too early and Badree had him stumped. Three balls later, Milinda Siriwardana nicked a googly to slip. Those were the wickets to his name. In the fifth over, Badree strung three dot balls on the trot to lead Dinesh Chandimal into running himself out.
Badree finished his spell in the 10th over and Sri Lanka were 49 for 5 with very little hope of recovery. They only barely avoided getting bowled out, and their 122 for 9 was expertly run down by a man playing his first T20I in three months - Andre Fletcher. He stepped in for an injured Chris Gayle to open the innings, struck an unbeaten 84 off 64 balls and was out in the middle when the winning run was scored.
West Indies may be tussling with their board, their Test team's reputation may be in the doldrums but the shortest format always brings the best out of them. Fletcher, for example, had a T20I average of 19 before today. But he had improved his reputation via the Caribbean Premier League. He was the second-highest run-scorer in the 2015 edition, behind only his mentor Gayle.
"Confidence on the field looks high," tweeted former West Indian captain Brian Lara as the current captain Darren Sammy broke into jigs while his men celebrated each wicket with gusto. The high-fives could have poked someone's eye out.
But Angelo Mathews' inexperienced team were at the opposite end of the spectrum. They were worried about far too many things, the reputation of a big-hitting West Indian line-up, for example.
Chandimal hit straight to cover and ran because he was off put by the 11 dots he consumed. Thirimanne was facing his first ball of spin and he committed to a loft without realising Badree had tossed it too far wide to be timed properly. Kapugedera was promoted to pinch hit and came back with 6 off 10 balls.
All that chaos was exploited by Badree, who read a set of nervous batsmen perfectly. Siriwardana was another Sri Lanka batsman itching to hit the ball, but Badree kept feeding him wrong 'uns that kept turning past the bat and after two hard-handed pokes that missed the ball, the third fell into the lap of the Gayle at first slip. Badree later dedicated his performance to his two daughters , who "I haven't seen for the better part of two months."
Thisara Perera would have hoped his 40 off 29 balls rescued Sri Lanka, but his fluency only went on to demonstrate how the rest of the line-up simply did not stand up when they needed to.
Most would have expected turning pitches in the subcontinent, but perhaps the format - Twenty20s - and the showpiece event of said format - may have tempted people into hoping for batting-friendly surfaces. The M Chinnaswamy crowd has seen many a batathon through eight seasons of the Indian Premier League, but today they had to contend themselves to a low-scoring match on a pitch that gave the spinners a lot of assistance. Not quite to the levels of Nagpur, though. It was just enough to keep the contest even and exciting.
Jeffrey Vandersay, who arrived in the country only on the eve of the match, bowled a fine spell to finish with 1 for 11 off his four overs. For a 26-year old, he coped under the glare of the World T20 excellently and for a young wristspinner, his control was excellent. Rangana Herath was tidy and Siriwardana took his two wickets by deceiving Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin in flight.
But as well as the spinners bowled, Sri Lanka had too little on the board and they hurt themselves with a couple of dropped chances. Opener Johnson Charles was given a life when Kapugedera failed to hold on to a dolly at deep midwicket and Andre Russell was shelled by Nuwan Kulasekara in the 18th over.
There were other things that went against Sri Lanka too. Their in-form batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan was adjudged lbw by umpire Johan Cloete when the ball seemed to be heading down leg. Siriwardana then fell on the wrong side of an lbw shout with umpire Aleem Dar. And the third umpire Simon Fry let Fletcher off when he was on 71 after a catch behind the stumps was reviewed. The ball was dying on Chandimal even as he dived forward to try and get his gloves underneath. Multiple camera angles, lots of zooming in and several slow-motion replays only seemed to confuse issue. The on-field call was out, but Fry overruled it.
Gayle, whose strained his left hamstring while fielding, had been ready to come out to bat at that time, but he was kept to loitering around in his full gear as West Indies cantered to victory without him to further establish their standing as a T20 powerhouse.
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