Unbeaten South Africa are marching on majestically at the T20 World Cup with their captain Aiden Markram looking a man on a mission as he powered them to a nine-wicket rout of the West Indies and a place in the semi-finals.
Markram ensured it was six wins out of six at the tournament for the rampant Proteas as he cracked a glorious unbeaten 82 off 46 balls to make their target of 177 appear easy meat in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Markram just missed out on leading his men to the title in Barbados two years ago when India pipped them by seven runs, but he looks intent to ensure there'll be no heartbreak this time as his partnerships with Quinton de Kock (47 off 24) and Ryan Rickelton (45 off 28) got them to 1-177 with 23 balls remaining.
Once again coming up big in a marquee game, Markram, centurion and man-of-the-match in the World Test final victory over Australia last year, has guided them into the last four.
They're top of their super eight group 1 with a maximum four points from two games and could still top the standings even if they don't beat Zimbabwe in their last match in Delhi on Sunday.
Markram couldn't do anything wrong from the moment he won the toss and inserted the Windies, with Kagiso Rabada (2-20) and Lungi Ngidi (3-30) ripping through their top-order.
As they slumped to 7-83, South Africa were completely in control and it needed a remarkable world-record T20I eighth-wicket partnership of 89 between Romario Shepherd, who reached an unbeaten 52 off with a last-ball streaky inside-edged boundary, and Jason Holder (49 off 31) to alter the complexion of the chase.
Yet targeting their 8-176, Markram, brilliant from the outset with his dazzling strokeplay that brought him four sixes and seven fours, and de Kock, who also clattered four sixes after not seeing much of the early strike, put on 95 in the first eight overs to lay the foundation of a comfortable win.
"Batted really nicely with Quinny (de Kock), I've got a really nice relationship with him, and Rick's (Rickelton) at three as well," explained Markram, who's now the second-top scorer in the tournament on 264 runs behind only Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan.
"So between the three of us, we sort of unofficially said to each other 'we need to make sure the team gets off to a really good start in the power play, especially when the wickets are good'. It came off today for us, and hopefully we can continue that trend."
So far, the South Africans have breezed through every match with a dominant win, except for the nail-biting victory over Afghanistan which took them two super overs to seal.
