T20 World Cup: India qualify for semi-final after South Africa lose to Netherlands

Team India have qualified for the semi-finals of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 even before playing their final Super 12s game against Zimbabwe.

Netherlands defeated South Africa on Sunday and that result ensured Rohit Sharma's India became the first team from Group 2 to progress to the last-four.

India will take on Zimbabwe in their final match in the Super 12 stage in Melbourne later on Sunday. The Indian team defeated Pakistan, Netherlands and Bangladesh but lost to South Africa in their Super 12 campaign.

Meanwhile, South Africa's defeat has also made the underway match between Pakistan and Bangladesh simpler: the winner of the game will qualify for the semi-final.

In Group 1, New Zealand and England qualified for the semi-finals after defending champions Australia missed out on net run-rate.

After losing their opening two games, Pakistan kept themselves alive in the tournament with victories over Netherlands and South Africa. Bangladesh, on the other hand, are still in the race to the semi-finals, thanks to their wins over Zimbabwe and Netherlands. Shakib Al Hasan's men out up a fine fight against India, giving Rohit and Co a massive scare in a rain-affected match in Adelaide last week.

On Sunday, the Proteas entered their final game with a chance to comfortably seal a spot in the semi-final. All they needed to do was to defeat the Dutch side. However, Temba Bavuma and co were shocked by Netherlands, who produced a big upset by defeating the Proteas side by 13 runs and eliminating them from the tournament.

Netherlands openers Stefan Myburgh and Max O'Dowd gave the team a good start, building a 58-run partnership. The two openers played calculated innings, took their time and fend off the new ball threat from the high-profile South African fast bowlers. Part-time off-spinner Aiden Markram gave South Africa their first breakthrough in the ninth over following which Keshav Maharaj picked ODowd's wicket in the 13th over.

Having lost their well-set openers, Netherlands took the aggressive approach, thanks to a 19-ball 35 from Tom Cooper and Colin Ackermann's unbeaten 41 off 26 balls.

Brandon Glover stepped up with the ball for Netherlands, picking up three wickets for just nine runs in his two-over spell while Fred Klaassen gave them the big breakthroughs of Quinton de Kock and Markram.

As South Africa kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were restricted to 145 for 8 in 20 overs, losing the must-win game by 13 runs.

T20 World Cup: Netherlands used dimension of ground better than us, says Bavuma

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma admitted that it was a "disappointing" performance from his side. He said that Scot Edwards and Co "used dimensions of the ground" better than his side.

"Very disappointing. We really played well before this game. We knew it was a must-win game, and we faltered when it mattered. Hard one to swallow for the guys. We had the confidence and the belief to get to the knockouts. You can pick out a lot of things when you lose that way.

"Firstly myself with the toss, winning the toss and bowling first. Wasn't ideal to let them off to a start and let them score 158. With the bat we just got stuck similar to the Pakistan game. We lost wickets at crucial times. The wicket maybe got a bit hard, but they used the dimensions of the ground a lot better than we did. From all of us, just wasn't good enough," added Bavuma at the post-match presentation.