England hit 17 off the penultimate over to beat South Africa and keep their hopes alive at the 2023 Over-50 Cricket World Cup.
The Proteas Veterans had gone into the game unbeaten, while the English needed a victory to give themselves any chance of reaching the semifinals.
And when the home side posted 201/5 on a difficult wicket and slow outfield at Groot Drakenstein, courtesy of Andre Peters’ and Mario Solomons’ half-centuries, along with a 33-ball 45 from Alan Dawson, they had their work cut out.
That task became even harder when James Albanie dismissed the top three with only 23 on the board, but Giles Ecclestone’s 84 and an unbeaten 34-run eighth-wicket partnership between Jonathan Wileman (55) and Martin Gidley (22) got the English over the line.
New Zealand missed the opportunity to secure their place in the semifinals after a 32-run defeat by the USA, who are still very much in with a chance of making the last four. Satyapal Chhabra (57) and Parak Ananta (32) put on an unbeaten 92 for the sixth-wicket to post 222/5 before dismissing their opponents for 190.
At the University of Stellenbosch, Sunil Dhaniram scored 70* as the West Indies posted 199/7, but Australia cruised to the target with five overs to spare thanks to an unbeaten 126-run partnership between Richard Gabb (71) and Leith Dawes (64).
Murray Goodwin hit a second successive century as Zimbabwe beat Canada by 78 runs in Stellenbosch. The Africans posted 205/6 before Darshan Vaghmaria’s 4/17 restricted the Canadians to just 127.
Pakistan remain in the hunt for a semifinal spot after a hard-fought victory over traditional rivals India, who batted first at Bridge House School in Franschhoek and posted a target of 176. Some solid batting all the way down saw Pakistan reach the target with 21 balls and five wickets to spare.
At Oude Libertas, UAE posted a decent enough 165 against Wales, but Mike Cann’s team had little trouble reaching the target, getting there in the 39th over and with just the five wickets down.