Deja-vu for South Africa as rain puts dampener on their T20 World Cup campaign

Rain continued to play spoilsport in South Africa's World Cup journey as their Super 12 match against Zimbabwe was washed out just a few overs before its conclusion on Monday.

The Proteas looked on course for victory in a rain-curtailed match but were forced to share a point. Chasing a revised target of 64 in seven overs, Quinton de Kock smashed an unbeaten 47 off 18 balls to steer the team to 51 for no loss in three overs when rain stopped play for the final time in Hobart.

The result brought back memories of previous World Cup nightmares for the Proteas. At the 1992 World Cup, South Africa needed 22 off 13 balls to beat England in their semi-final when rain stopped play. Upon resumption, their target was famously revised to 21 off one ball.

At the 2003 home World Cup, South Africa were knocked out of the group stage after they miscalculated the target required in their rain-affected match against Sri Lanka and lost a place in the Super Six stage by one run.

On Monday, wicketkeeper batsman De Kock came out all guns blazing to smash Tendai Chatara for four fours and a six in a 23-run opening over as they chased 80 from nine overs.

South Africa lose a point cos of rain. If rain had stopped and there was enough time for a 5 overs match, South Africa weren’t required to bat again because they had already achieved the revised target (46) for a 5 overs match. But rain didn’t stop to constitute a 5-over match.

The opener kept up his attack into the second over to hit Richard Ngarava for four straight boundaries and take the total to 40-0 in a stop-start match.

Umpires tried their best to complete the Super 12 encounter but the final rain interruption forced the players off the ground and a disappointed De Kock shook hands with