South Africa’s wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shami hit out at critics after his match-winning spell of 3/27 against the West Indies in the Super 8 match of the T20 World Cup 2024 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound.
Shamsi bagged three crucial wickets, removing Kyle Mayers (35 off 34), Roston Chase (52 off 42) and Sherfane Rutherford (0 off 4) and helped the Proteas restrict the West Indies to135-8 while batting first.
Aiden Markram’s men ended up chasing the target revised by the DLS system and made their way to the T20 World Cup semi-final. Shamsi was awarded the Player of the Match award for his heroics with the ball.
Talking after the match, Shamsi stated that he conceded 50 runs in the last match and people were saying he was unable to take pressure.
"In the previous game I bowled later in the innings and I went for 50 and there were certain critics coming out from the woodwork, speaking about pressure and how I can't handle pressure," said Shamsi.
"I think in a quarter-final match I hope that was enough pressure for me to respond to. It's just a little bit ridiculous when it's ex-players.
"When they were on the field they did the same things. As cricketers we know sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
South Africa are on a seven-match win streak in the T20 World Cup but some of their victories were close-margin wins and Shamsi believed that this Proteas side knows how to get over the line even when things are not going their way.
"Obviously most of the games have been a lot closer than we would have personally liked," added Shamsi. "But the amazing thing is that this new Proteas team always seems to get over the line.
"We've been put under huge pressure basically in every single game that we've played and the boys have managed to find a way to win no matter what the situation, no matter how close the game.
"So that's really pleasing for us as a unit, and in a funny way we're looking forward to it."
