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Proteas T20 captain Aiden Markram was satisfied with their performance against New Zealand at the T20 World Cup yesterday, and went as far as saying they played a near perfect game.
South Africa beat the Black Caps by 7 wickets in Ahmedabad to go to within a whisker of a Super 8 spot and highlight their status as one of the favourites to win the tournament.
Markram, who led from the front with an unbeaten 86, says they played with a lot more conviction against the only other team to have previously not lost in Group D, and believes the team is getting better and better with each game.
"Yeah, for sure, definitely a lot closer to the fullest of potential tonight. I thought pretty much in all areas we were really good, and I think it just came from clarity and conviction in the plan – the ball you're going to bowl or approach with the bat," said Markram.
"So it's nice to see the boys, slowly but surely, improving and getting better and better, and yeah, tonight was an all-round really good performance."
Markram won the toss and elected to bowl first, with the bowlers – led by player of the match Marco Jansen's 4/40 – restricting the Kiwis to a below-par 175, and the skipper lauded the special effort.
"Yeah, the pitch got better. You have to first acknowledge that we got the right side of the toss and that helped us, but ultimately to restrict them to under 180 was a really massive effort," he added.
"So it's probably an over-200 type of pitch, which played really well and obviously got better and better the later the night went. But for the bowlers to restrict them under 180 was special."
