Dawn
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15:54 Feb 23, 2026
Defending T20 World Cup champions India need “two big performances” to reach the semi-finals after Sunday’s huge defeat to South Africa, said their assistant coach. India came into the T20 World Cup as hot favourites on home soil but were thrashed by 76 runs in the Super Eights as 80,000 fans at the massive Narendra Modi stadium were stunned into silence. In their first chase of the tournament, India’s batting came up woefully short in the face of some disciplined South Africa bowling. India collapsed to 111 all out in 18.5 overs in response to South Africa’s 187-7 as their 12-match win streak in the T20 World Cup came to a crashing end. The magnitude of the defeat has left India with a desperate net run-rate of -3.8 and likely needing to win their last two Super Eight matches convincingly to make it to the semi-finals. Anything less and India will need to rely on a combination of other results going their way. “Very disappointed in the performance,” said Ryan ten Doeschate. “When you set out to win a World C...