South Africa vs United Arab Emirates, 34th Match, Group D, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

That ends the coverage of this game. We have had the toss in the all-important Pakistan v Namibia game. Head over there to catch up on all the action. For now it's bye bye.

Aiden Markram | South Africa captain: "Yeah, that's what it was about. It was great to see the boys that came in and that have been working hard for an opportunity to grab that opportunity with both hands. I thought the bowling unit once again was really good in executing plans on that wicket. And, yeah, a lot of confidence for us as a group to know that each guy in the 15 is in a good space. (on the conditions here) It is slightly different. Today obviously with the rain and interesting weather around, it played a bit different. It was a little bit tacky up front, but I suppose it was a morning game. Different to Ahmedabad, probably a little bit less bounce, but yeah, it's good to get a run out in conditions like this, knowing that we're coming back here and I'm sure the boys will sort of realise what worked, things to stay away from and keep that in the back of our minds for when we come back. (on the dropped catches) Massively yeah. We let ourselves down in the field today, not up to the mark at all. The coach will have his say, which is needed. You don't want to create anything mentally by not being switched on and I thought in the field we probably, not probably, we definitely let ourselves down from an attitude and approach point of view. So nice little lesson for us to learn there and I've got no doubt the boys will be up for it again in Ahmedabad. (on the Super 8s) I think fortunately we've got a little bit of time before that first Super 8 game, which is obviously a great thing for the boys to be able to switch off for a little bit and then regroup. Going back to Ahmedabad as well, we spent a bit of time there now in this comp, so it won't feel too foreign to us. It's about really just zoning in on the things that we found worked there and our strengths as a unit and backing that to the hilt and looking forward to that first game."

Muhammad Waseem | UAE captain: "Yeah, it's a tough outing for us as a batting team. I think we need to bat well, especially from the 6th to 16th over, that middle part of the inning, we have to bat well. (on how can you improve) Yeah, to be honest, right now we are in the learning process. So we are learning so many things from these tournaments and from the seniors [senior] players. So I think we need a little bit step up in the batting team in the middle overs and as a bowling team in the last overs. (what can you take from this tournament?) Yeah, to be honest, boys played excellent cricket all through the tournament. I'm very happy with the performance of Sohaib, Aryan Sharma, Alishan and I think in the upcoming tournament, one or two guys more will rise their hand for the performance. (on the crowd support) Yeah, thank you so much for the crowd. They are supporting us and I can say only they are, I think they are upset from the result, but thank you so much for the support."

Corbin Bosch | Player of the Match: "That was pretty basic today to keep it nice and simple. I think the wicket set for itself what we had to do. I think there was some nip early on and we communicated fantastically as bowlers, so I think it made my life easy. Yeah, I think, as I said, I've got great guys in front of me that I can learn from and it just gives me a bit of time to watch what the batters are doing and how our bowlers are bowling so I can formulate plans through doing that. It's definitely a bit nervy, especially that first couple, but once you get the first few down it calmed down nicely. (adapting to conditions) As I think, I think we had a good outing yesterday at training, so it got a good idea of more or less what the wicket would do and then I think with a bit of rain this morning, it just helped the wicket a little bit for us, so definitely helped our seamers. (variations coming into play) Yeah, I think today I kept it more basic than I normally would and I think it helps having Aiden as a captain. He keeps me nice and calm and just tells me to execute my best ball at any given stage, so it's nice to bounce ideas off him, but today I kept it pretty simple. (100 wickets in T20s) Yeah, no, it's amazing. I can't believe I got a 100, but yeah, fantastic and I'm proud of myself, but there's plenty more to do."

14:32 Local Time, 09:02 GMT, 14:32 IST: South Africa win four from four and go into the Super 8s with an unbeaten record. The rain came and delayed this win, otherwise this would've been over much earlier. A target of 123 was never going to test this strong South African batting unit. Contributions from Markram, Rickelton and an aggressive knock from Brevis got the job done. UAE took four wickets but that was more of South Africa trying to find the boundaries and getting out rather than any good balls. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff...

Muhammad Arfan to Dewald Brevis, THATS OUT!! Caught!!