SA vs AFG | Blockbuster Proteas break semis curse as Afghan fairytale comes to grinding halt

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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South Africa were in a league of their own at Tarouba on Thursday crushing Afghanistan by nine wickets to secure a first-ever World Cup final appearance. The Proteas bowling pack dismantled the Afghans for a record semi-final low of 56, with just Azmatullah Omarzai managing double figures.

‌Brief score: SA 60/1 (8.5) [Hendricks 29(25)*, Markram 23(21)*; Farooqi 1/11(2)] beat AFG 56 (11.5) [Omarzai 10(12), Naib 9(8); Shamsi 3/6(1.5)] by 9 wickets

Opting to bat first, Afghanistan's innings got off to an ominous start with Marco Jansen scalping the tournament's top run-getter Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a three-ball duck in the very first over. The tall left-arm quick dealt further damage by crashing into the promoted Gulbadin Naib's stumps in his ensuing over before an unplayable Kagiso Rabada double-wicket maiden left the Asian contingent reeling at 20/4. Jansen kept his streak going by having Nangeyalia Kharote caught behind with his third over in the powerplay, setting the stage for Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi to finish the job. The former opened his tally when Azmatullah Omarzai inexplicably holed out for 10 and doubled his account by sending Rashid Khan's stumps cartwheeling in the 11th over. Meanwhile, Shamsi extracted prodigious turn off the deck, and took less than two overs to clean up the tail. Afghanistan were thus bowled out for their lowest-ever T20I total of 56, with just one batter crossing into double digits.

Afghan's all-star new-ball duo of Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq inspired hopes of a miraculous triumph with unplayable spells up-top, including the former castling Quinton de Kock after a brilliant set-up. However, Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram held their nerves to expertly navigate the challenging conditions early on before stepping on the accelerator to get the job done within nine overs and script history for the Proteas.

All well and good

They saved their best for them

LOL

Extras wins it 

Sad

Disappointed

Team to watch

Black eyes

OUT

Yup

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