South Africa send West Indies crashing out of T20 World Cup

South Africa's Marco Jansen hits the winning six that to seal a three-wicket win over West Indies and with it a place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals. AFP

South Africa eliminated co-hosts West Indies to book their place in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.

The Super Eight match in Antigua was the latest to be hit by rain. Chasing a revised 123 off 17 overs, South Africa stuttered to 110-7 as Roston Chase took three wickets, but they reached their target when Marco Jansen hit the first ball of the final over for six.

South Africa won the toss and restricted the West Indies to 135-8 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound.

All-rounder Chase top scored with 52, featuring in an 81-run third-wicket partnership with Kyle Mayers (35 off 34 balls) before giving the West Indies hope by taking 3-12 with his off-spin.

Jansen's unbeaten 21 saw the Proteas to victory at 124-7 when he smashed the final six off Obed McCoy.

Winning captain Aiden Markram admitted to nerves during the tense chase.

"There's a lot of relief at making the semi-finals but we're not going to be brainwashed by that because we would have liked to be a lot more convincing," he said.

"Maybe we tried to kill off the game too early, but that's been the story of the competition so far.

"We get ourselves into tricky positions and then have to battle to get over the line."

Earlier, Jansen had been injured in a collision with Kagiso Rabada while fielding. By a quirk of fate it was those two players who found themselves at the crease as the match reached its climax.

South Africa needed 12 runs from nine balls when Rabada came out to bat. He hit a four from the last ball of the penultimate over to leave the Proteas needing five runs from six balls. Jansen then smashed the first ball of the last over, clearing the boundary to win the match.

There was a measure of redemption for South Africa allrounder Tabraiz Shamsi.

Shamsi endured a torrid time the last time South Africa played in Antigua, finishing with figures of 1-50 in the Proteas' 18-run win over fellow co-hosts the United States.

He was subsequently replaced by seamer Ottniel Baartman for the victory over England before being restored to the attack for the match against West Indies.

Shamsi justified the call as he took 3-27 to collect the man-of-the-match award, and said he was pleased to prove his critics wrong.

"The last time I played here I went for 50 runs and there was a lot of chatter going around," said Shamsi.

"I was happy to come back and perform my role, but credit as well to the guys who bowled before me because they set it up beautifully."

The left-arm wrist-spinner got excellent support from fellow slow bowlers Keshav Maharaj (1-24) and captain Aiden Markram (1-28).

“We keep finding a way to win these matches whatever the situation,” added Shamsi. “Our supporters would probably like bigger wins. But things like this keep us in check and we’ve been able to overcome these moments throughout the tournament.”

West Indies got off to a poor start with opening batsman Shai Hope out for a duck off the bowling of Marco Jansen who was on hand to supply the catch that saw Nicholas Pooran follow him soon after with Markham taking the wicket.

The two-time T20 World Cup champions were reeling at 5-2 in only the second over with Chase thankful for a dropped catch by Anrich Nortje on 11.

Chase made the most of his reprieve, clearing the ropes twice and hitting three fours while Mayers contributed with an almost run-a-ball 35 off 34 deliveries to help steady the ship.

Once Shamsi removed Mayers to a sliced catch at deep cover, a steady stream of wickets enabled South Africa to restrict the West Indies.

With the score on 117-6, Nortje made amends for his earlier error with a direct hit to run out the dangerous Andre Russell who had hit two sixes in his 15 off nine balls.

"This is one batting performance we will try our best to forget," said West Indies captain Rovman Powell.

"It was a commendable bowling effort by us. We said at the halfway mark that we were going to give it our all and the guys really gave everything to defend that total."

South Africa join England as the semi-final qualifiers from Super Eight Group 2.