The United States put the seasoned South Africans under tremendous stress in their T20 World Cup Super Eight match here on Wednesday, and the Proteas skipper Aiden Markram conceded Andries Gous made life difficult for his side.

Gous’ audacious strokeplay saw him score an unbeaten 80 off just 47 deliveries (5x4s, 5x6s) and kept the South Africans on tenterhooks till the last over. Chasing 195 for victory, USA fell short by 18 runs but not before giving the Proteas a mighty scare.

“Gous played well. He made life tough for us. A couple of tidy-overs from us and the margin could have been better. But lessons learnt. Nice start. At half-time, the wicket changed a little. It got slower,” said Markram (sic).

Markram also credited the USA bowlers for restricting strokeplay, adding that ‘Player of the Match’ Quinton de Kock finally got the team going.

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“They bowled well. We would have loved to finish with a bang.

A couple of lessons to take. Big for us that Quinny (de Kock) got his flow. Everyone else just chipped in. With a couple of overs, we could have tidied up. A few executions here and there might have let us down,” he added.

De Kock too, conceded his side was “under pressure” when Gous was going all out plundering runs and making a mockery of a skilful pace attack.

“USA put us under pressure, it was a great game. Just trying to focus on scoring runs, the rest of it will take care of itself. We have had a few tricky wickets coming into this game, so it was great to be out there,” said De Kock, whose 74 played a pivotal role in the team’s win.

USA skipper Aaron Jones said with the kind of show his side put up, he wasn’t at all dejected.

“I don’t wanna say disappointed. I thought we could have been more disciplined with the ball. But it goes this way sometimes. I think we need to be more disciplined. We will try and go back to the board and come back stronger. Happy to be going home. I know the conditions well.