Dubai, Oct 26: Aiden Markram struck a whirlwind unbeaten fifty as South Africa produced an all-round effort to bounce back strongly from their opening defeat and beat West Indies by eight wickets to secure their first win in the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup here on Tuesday.

Both South Africa and West Indies started their Super 12 campaign on a losing note. While the Proteas were handed a five-wicket defeat by Australia, West Indies sank to six-wicket loss against England.

South Africa will next play Sri Lanka in their third Group 1 match on October 30, while West Indies will take on Bangladesh a day earlier.

South Africa first weathered Evin Lewis' (56) initial onslaught to restrict West Indies to 143 for eight and then rode on solid batting displays from Markram (51 not out off 26), Rassie van der Dussen (43 not out off 51) and Reeza Hendricks (39) to comfortably chase down the target with 10 balls to spare.

Contrary to the end result, South Africa did not have the best of starts to their chase losing skipper Temba Bavuma early to a run out.

But Hendricks, who replaced Quinton de Kock dropped for for not taking knee against racism, and van der Dussen then stabilised the innings with a 57-run second wicket stand.

After Hendricks' dismissal, van der Dussen and Markram then carried South Africa forward to bring down the equation to 44 off last six overs.

While van der Dussen held one end up, Markram played an explosive knock to take South Africa home.

Markram decorated his innings with two fours and four sixes.

Earlier, Lewis smashed a quickfire half-century before West Indies lost the plot to manage the modest score.

Lewis and Lendl Simmons (16) got West Indies off to a flier. The duo put on 73 runs off 63 balls for the opening stand before West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals.

Lewis did the bulk of the scoring in the partnership. He showed his aggressive intent from the beginning, hitting Kagiso Rabada for a boundary over backward point and then lofted the bowler straight over his head in the next ball.

Next it was Aiden Markram's turn to face Lewis' wrath as the batter struck two sixes and a four in successive balls to garner 18 runs in the fifth over.

Lewis then smashed Anrich Nortje over mid-off but a ball later the bowler induced a thin edge from Simmons which wicket-keeper Henrich Klaasen failed to hold.

Lewis was in ominous form as he didn't spare a single South Africa bowler. He brought up his fifty in style, slog sweeping Tabraiz Shamsi over deep square-leg to reach landmark in just 32 balls.

Lewis continued in the same vein after his fifty and clobbered Keshav Maharaj for a six but finally perished a ball later in search of one too many, holed out to Rabada at deep midwicket.

He struck three fours and six sixes during his 35-ball knock.

Two more quick wickets, somewhat, put a brake on West Indies' charge after the brilliant start given by Lewis.

But Simmons stay was struggle as his 35-ball innings was the joint-longest in terms of balls without a boundary in men's T20 World Cup.

Nicholas Pooran'S (12 off 7) stay was shortlived as he became Maharaj's second victim, caught by David Miller and then Simmons was castled by Rabada in the next over.

Shamsi was taken to task by West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard and Chris Gayle, hitting the left-arm spinner for a six each in the 16th over.

Gayle's run-a-ball 12 knock was cut short by Dwaine Pretorius before Andre Russell was cleaned up by Nortje in the next over. Shimron Hetmyer was run out a ball later to compound the West Indies problems.

Pollard made 26 off 20 balls but failed to push up the scoring towards the end.

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New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'

In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".

"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.

"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.

'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.

The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.

"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.

In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"

"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.

O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".

The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.