We were nowhere near our best - Aiden Markram

South Africa slumped to 115/7 in their 20-over innings after being sent in to bat first by the Rhinos in St Vincent, with opener Reeza Hendricks top scoring with 43 off 49 deliveries.

REPORT: Proteas narrowly avoid World Cup upset against Nepal with last-ball victory

After a solid start by Nepal, Tabraiz Shamsi's spell of 4/19 and a final-ball run-out ultimately handed the Proteas a one-run victory, which Markram admitted was too close for comfort.

"We weren't overly chuffed at the halfway stage. Pretty much as a whole tonight, I thought we were probably nowhere near our best, and just lacked a bit of intensity and conviction in our game plans," said Markram.

"But I mentioned it out on the field, you have to give a lot of credit to the Nepal team, they put us under a lot of pressure and showed the quality they have in their change room, and made life really difficult for us.

"We'll take lots of learnings from a night like this, as I'm sure they would too, and actually take a lot of confidence from really having us on the ropes."

With four wins from four, and the Super Eight stage up next, Markram insists they will continue to take things one game at a time and not get ahead of themselves. 

"We take it game by game and compete as hard and as best as we can, and ultimately see where it gets us," the skipper added.

"But, looking forward to that phase now of the competition. We're really grateful that we are in the Super Eights, and I'm hoping we can put a more complete game of cricket together now that we move forward to the business end of the competition."