2
2
6
1
2
1
= 14
Match Details
SACH vs WICH, 2nd T20, WCL T20 2025 live
SACH
80-6(11.0)
Match Tied/South Africa Champions Won By Bowl Out
WICH
(11.0)79-5
+
P'ship : 1(1)
Commentary
All
Highlights
Overs
W
6s
4s
Inn 1
Inn 2
Milestone
Well that's it from the first match of the double header folks! Hop tabs to join our coverage of the second match between England Champions and Australia Champions!
This is Anirudh Modi, signing off along with my colleagues Deepak Prakash and Zeeshan Naiyer! See you on the next one!
This is Anirudh Modi, signing off along with my colleagues Deepak Prakash and Zeeshan Naiyer! See you on the next one!
AB de Villiers (South Africa Champions Captain): "It was definitely tricky — a little bit on the slower side, maybe even two-paced at times — which made it really difficult to generate momentum while striking the ball. That was the nature of the pitch, and perhaps it worked in their favour to some extent. They seemed to adapt well in the second innings and bowled exceptionally. Unfortunately, we were a bit slow to adjust with the bat, lost key wickets at crucial moments, and ultimately got ourselves into trouble.
I watched yesterday’s game and noticed there weren’t many straight drives — it was really difficult to hit down the ground. Most of the boundaries came square of the wicket. So I instructed my bowlers to bowl nice and full. I told them, ‘If they manage to hit it straight, that’s fine — I want you to take that chance,’ and it paid off.
It’s amazing. Obviously, the rain played a part in not everyone being able to come out today, but still a decent crowd turned up. Hopefully, more people will come out and support the games to follow. We’ve already had two great games to kick things off, and I’m sure we’re in for another mouth-watering encounter today — two old foes going head-to-head."
I watched yesterday’s game and noticed there weren’t many straight drives — it was really difficult to hit down the ground. Most of the boundaries came square of the wicket. So I instructed my bowlers to bowl nice and full. I told them, ‘If they manage to hit it straight, that’s fine — I want you to take that chance,’ and it paid off.
It’s amazing. Obviously, the rain played a part in not everyone being able to come out today, but still a decent crowd turned up. Hopefully, more people will come out and support the games to follow. We’ve already had two great games to kick things off, and I’m sure we’re in for another mouth-watering encounter today — two old foes going head-to-head."
Chris Gayle (West Indies Champions Captain): "I was just bluffing at the toss, haha. It was a slow wicket and their bowlers played really well. It was difficult to bat on this. Me and Hardus have a bit of a thing going on, I wanted to smash him into the stands but he won the battle today.
Oof, a tense bowl out and we are disappointed that we missed, but credit to South Africa for winning this one. A quiet night ahead, I'm tired."
Oof, a tense bowl out and we are disappointed that we missed, but credit to South Africa for winning this one. A quiet night ahead, I'm tired."
JP Duminy (POTM): "Well, it’s a hybrid pitch, isn’t it? At times, you know, we had Richard Levi as the go-to man on those kinds of surfaces. It wasn’t an easy pitch to play on, unfortunately — a bit slow at times — and they used their cutters quite effectively. I’ve played against these guys a few times before, so I had a fair idea of their game plans, and fortunately, I was able to execute mine well.
Yeah, I think there's certainly, uh, an ambition to perform no matter what sort of platform you're playing, whether it's club cricket, whether it's this platform in WCL. Uh, I think the, the energy is certainly there to, to want to put in, put in a big performance.
Obviously, owners for all teams have put their, their trust in us. So fortunately, we've got off to a good start in this one."
Yeah, I think there's certainly, uh, an ambition to perform no matter what sort of platform you're playing, whether it's club cricket, whether it's this platform in WCL. Uh, I think the, the energy is certainly there to, to want to put in, put in a big performance.
Obviously, owners for all teams have put their, their trust in us. So fortunately, we've got off to a good start in this one."
Player of the Match: JP Duminy
Gamechanger of the Match: Sarel Erwee
Bowler of the Match: Aaron Phangiso
Time for the post match presentation ceremony..
10:06 PM IST, 5:36 PM Local Time | A rain-curtailed match has produced an absolute thriller as South Africa Champions defeat West Indies Champions via a bowl out after the match was initially tied! A great way to kick off the tournament for South Africa Champions and a successful return to the field for their skipper AB de Villiers!
South Africa Champions won the toss and elected to bowl first, and Hardus Viljoen gave them the perfect start with the wicket of Chris Gayle in the very first over! But thanks to crucial knocks from Lendl Simmons (28) and Chadwick Walton's unbeaten 27, West Indies Champions were able to establish a score of 79/5 at the end of their 11 overs and the target was set at 81 via DLS.
For South Africa Champions, Aaron Phangiso was the pick of the bowlers with 2/19 from his 3 overs.
Come the chase, South Africa Champions would have thought it would be easy with 81 the target but the West Indies bowlers led by Sheldon Cottrell had other plans as he dismissed Richard Levi early and Benn followed it up with the wicket of AB de Villiers with just 3 runs against his name.
Sarel Erwee and Hashim Amla built a crucial 42 run-partnership for the 3rd wicket but Cottrell once again was the destructor-in-chief when he dismissed Amla for 15 runs and channeled his inner footballer to run Erwee out on the next delivery! JP Duminy was not going to go down without a fight as he smashed 25 runs to bring South Africa on the brink of a win but Fidel Edwards produced a double-wicket final over the end the match in a tie!
The match was decided via a bowl out, and South Africa hit 2 out of 5 times in comparison to 0 out of 4 from West Indies, to win a dramatic match and win their opening game!
Commentary