South Africa has already made it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2026. The team, which has not lost a single match so far in this tournament, has consistently performed well. Top order batsman Ryan Rickleton also played a special role in this successful performance of the team, who has contributed with his bat in almost every match. But just before the semi-finals, an accident happened to him in the last match of Super-8. In the match against Zimbabwe, a fast bouncer targeted his head, due to which a mark was formed on his head.
This incident happened in the Group-1 match on Sunday 1 March at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. While South Africa had already reached the semi-finals, Zimbabwe was also out of the tournament even before this match. Despite this, there was a tough competition between the two teams in this match. A similar scene was seen during South Africa’s innings when Ryan Rickleton was trying to adopt an aggressive stance and a ball from fast bowler Brad Evans targeted him.
This happened in the fourth over of the innings. Brad Evans bowled a bouncer, on which Rickleton tried to make a pull shot. But he missed the pace and bounce and the ball hit him straight on his helmet. This shocked Rickleton and he appeared distressed. When he immediately took off his helmet, a red mark was clearly visible on his forehead above his left eye, which was caused by the ball. Due to this the game was stopped for about 5-6 minutes.
The South African physio came and examined him and when he passed the concussion test, he was allowed to play further. During this time, his helmet was also changed as per the rules. But this clash between Evans and Rickleton happened again in the next over. In the sixth over, Rickleton hit a six on the very first ball of the Zimbabwean pacer. Evans tried a bouncer on the next ball but this time the South African batsman was alert and he hit a six.
Finally, on the fifth ball of the same over, Evans again bowled a bouncer and this time Rickleton’s shot could not get him a six. Ryan Burl ended this innings by taking an excellent catch near the boundary. Rickleton scored a total of 31 runs in 22 balls, hitting 4 sixes.