World T20: De Villiers dazzles as South Africa down spirited Afghanistan
©ICC Media
AB de Villiers put up a show to remember as he took apart the Afghanistan bowlers with surgical precision during his innings of 64 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. His knock helped South Africa post a mammoth score of 209, and despite spirited attempt, Afghanistan fell short by 37 runs.
Brief Scores: South Africa 209/5 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 64(29), Quinton de Kock 45(31); Amir Hamza 1/25, Shapoor Zadran 1/28); Afghanistan 172 all out in 19.4 overs (Mohammad Shahzad 44(19), Gulbadin Naib 26(18); Chris Morris 4/27, Imran Tahir 2/24)
Chasing an improbable target of 210, Afghanistan made a fantastic start. Mohammad Shahzad sliced Kagiso Rabada over the third man boundary for a six in the second ball of the opening over, and he did not look back after that.
The diminutive right-hander went after Kyle Abbott in the next over and hit him for three massive sixes and a boundary to set the cats among the pigeons. Afghanistan raced to 47 runs in just three overs, and it seemed like lightning is about to hit the same place twice.
However, just when it seemed like Shahzad would pull out a miracle, Chris Morris struck. The tall fast bowler dismantled Shahzad's stumps in the fourth over with a delightful outswinger, bowled at 149 kmph, which squared up the batsman completely. In his next over, he picked up the wicket of Asghar Stanikzai, and the Proteas were back in command of the match.
Noor Ali Zadran and Gulbadin Naib stemmed the fall of wickets with a 45-run partnership. They kept the scoreboard ticking over at a fair pace and kept Afghanistan in the hunt. However, after thepartnership was broken in the 11th over, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Samiullah Shenwari managed to put in some hefty blows towards the end, before being dismissed for 25. His departure removed any slim hopes Afghanistan had of chasing down this target, as the required run rate kept climbing.
Earlier, South Africa made one change to the lineup, which suffered a shocking loss against England even after putting up 229 runs on the board. Dale Steyn, who leaked a lot of runs in the last game, was replaced by David Wiese in the team. Afghanistan brought in Amir Hamza and Shapoor Zadran into their team, as they hoped for an upset in front of the large Afghan contingent, who had landed in Mumbai ahead of this game to support their team.
The Proteas won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked like a flat deck. Quinton de Kock resumed from where he left off against England and hit three boundaries off Hamza in the opening over.
Shapoor Zadran delivered an early blow, though and removed Hasim Amla at the other end for just five runs. However, the wicket did not stem the flow of runs as Faf du Plessis joined de Kock to take the Afghan bowling apart. The duo added 65 runs, from 42 balls, for the second wicket before du Plessis ran himself out. De Kock followed him soon in the 12th over, at 97/3, as Afghanistan staged a mini-fightback.
However, their joy was short-lived as the AB de Villiers show began. Samiullah Shenwari gave him a respite in the 15th over when de Villiers was batting at 26, and that proved to be a costly mistake. A couple of overs later, de Villiers launched into Rashid Khan and hit him for four sixes and a four, in five consecutive deliveries, and brought up his half-century.
Eventually, in the 18th over de Villiers was dismissed by Mohammad Nabi, as he failed to get the distance he was looking for in his attempt to clear the midwicket boundary, and ended up giving an easy catch to Noor Ali Zadran. But his 76-run partnership, 64 of which were made by de Villiers, with JP Duminy, had already put South Africa in a commanding position by then.
Duminy and Miller added 30 more runs in the last two overs, as South Africa ended up with a score of 209 runs – their second 200+ plus total in two matches.
