Australia beat South Africa by a big margin of five wickets in the first match of the Super 12s stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup on Saturday at Abu Dhabi.

It was the first match of the Super 12s of this World Cup. A total of 12 teams are fighting this phase dividing into two groups. Australia and South Africa are in Group 1. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, England and West Indies are also in this group.

In Group 2, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Scotland, Namibia and New Zealand will fight each other.

In Saturday’s match, South Africa were tumbled for only 118/9 in 20 overs while batting first after losing the toss. However, it was not an easy walk for Australia to chase down a target of 119 runs as they had to bat till 19.4 overs.

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Aiden Markram was the highest scorer for South Africa amassing 40 runs off 36 balls while Kagiso Rabada scored 19. For Australia, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Adam Zampa took two wickets each.

In reply, Australia lost the captain Aaron Finch for a duck in the second over of the innings. David Warner and Mitchell Marsh were not in good touch as they posted 14 and 11 respectively.

Steven Smith posted the highest runs— 35 off 34 balls, while in the sixth wicket stand, Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade scored unbeaten 40 off 26 balls to seal the match.

On October 24, four Asian teams will take the field— Bangladesh will face off Sri Lanka at 4pm at Sharjah while arch-rival Pakistan and India will fight at 8pm in Dubai.

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Among the teams who advanced to the Super 12s playing Round 1, Namibia are the biggest surprise. It was expected that Sri Lanka and one of Ireland and the Netherlands would make it to the next phase, but Namibia beat both Ireland and the Netherlands to book a place in Super 12s.

David Wiese and Gerhard Erasmus played exceptionally well for Namibia scoring 100 and 105 respectively in three matches of Round 1. They could be a big threat for the big teams of Group 2 in Super 12s.

Meanwhile, after losing the first match of Round 1, Bangladesh beat Oman and Papua New Guinea in two consecutive matches to ensure a Super 12s berth. They will now face more non-Asian teams in this stage which may be more helpful for them to make it to the semis.