[Watch] Karan KC takes a juggling catch after 4 attempts to dismiss Heinrich Klaasen in SA vs NEP 2024 T20 World Cup clash
Nepal fielder Karan KC toiled hard to dismiss South Africa batter Heinrich Klaasen, taking a juggling catch after four attempts. The two teams squared off in the 31st match of the 2024 T20 World Cup at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St Vincent, on Friday, June 14.
During the first innings, on the second ball of the 14th over, Klaasen tried to take an aggressive route against the Nepal spinner Kushal Bhurtel. To a floated delivery outside the off-stump, Klaasen went for a big shot in the extra cover region.
However, he could not get the desired timing behind the shot as the ball went towards Karan. The Nepal fielder failed to complete the easy catch in a single attempt and juggled it three times before finally putting in a dive to grab the ball.
You can watch the catch in the video below:
South Africa beat Nepal by 1 run in the 2024 T20 World Cup clash to remain unbeaten in group stage
South Africa batted first after losing the toss. Kushal Bhurtel (4/19) and Dipendra Singh (3/21) bowled magnificent spells to restrict the Proteas team to just 115/7 in 20 overs. Reeza Hendricks top-scored for the African side with a sedate 43-run knock off 49 balls. Tristan Stubbs played a brilliant cameo of 27* (18) and provided some much-needed impetus for his side in the death overs.
Nepal then scored 114/7 in 20 overs and narrowly missed out on an opportunity to pull off their most significant victory in International cricket. Left-arm leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi starred for South Africa with a four-wicket haul.
At the post-match presentation, South African captain Aiden Markram reflected on the win and said:
"Really grateful for having got over the line, but we have a lot of learnings to take from these matches into the next phase, in the next couple of days. I thought that our bowling attack was well rounded, but did not expect it to turn so much. Anyway, we have done well to keep things tight right through the second innings."
"Tabraiz Shamsi didn't play for a while, so we wanted to give him a game before the next round of matches, Keshav Maharaj is not injured. Had we understood that the pitch would play like this, both were sure to be picked but Keshav has done a tremendous job for us over the years," he added.
South Africa won all four of their group-stage games despite looking unconvincing at times.