Video: South African cricketers celebrate wildly after rugby team's dramatic win in World Cup quarter-final

The South African Rugby team’s dramatic victory sparked off wild celebrations among the cricketers

The South African cricket team are in the middle of a challenging 72-day tour of India which is still in its relative infancy with around 50 days of highly competitive cricket still left. They reclaimed the lead in the ongoing 5-match ODI series at Rajkot on Sunday after defeating the hosts by 18 runs in the 3rd ODI.

The inspiration for that victory might well have been the South Africa national rugby union team’s dramatic victory over Wales in the first quarter-final clash at the 2015 Rugby World Cup currently going on in England. The South Africans take their rugby pretty seriously – after all they are two-time World champions (1995 & 2007) – and the cricketers are no different.

We already saw how South African ODI skipper AB de Villiers had tweeted a small video which featured some South African players as well as the Indian trio of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri showing their support to the rugby team before the start of the tournament of the tournament.

Ahead of the encounter at Rajkot, after gruelling out in the nets whole day on Saturday, the Proteas took time out to support the South African national rugby team, commonly known by the nickname ‘Springboks’ in their effort to reach the semifinals at the grandest stage of them all. After all, the cricket team have had their fair share of emotional knockouts at the World Cup stage – as recently as the 2015 edition where they were knocked out by New Zealand in dramatic fashion.

The Proteas were in full strength to witness the match at the hotel where the team was put up in Rajkot and after South African captain Fourie du Preez scored a late try in the 75th minute that helped the Springboks beat Wales 23-19, they broke into wild celebration with the likes of Faf du Plessis & Farhaan Behardien unable to control their excitement. The dramatic scenes were captured on film and uploaded by AB de Villiers on his official Twitter account.

So when the @Springboks score a try, or any points for that matter, the Proteas get pretty excited pic.twitter.com/QnKlIctjfg

— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) October 18, 2015

An extended version of the whole night’s action was compiled as the latest episode in the India Tour Diaries campaign showcasing the Proteas preparing for the match with their score predictions, followed by scenes during the match which include moments of concentration, chanting & excitement before culminating in the wild scenes following the victory.