South Africa make it quick for Afghans, enter maiden World Cup final

Tarouba (Trinidad), June 27

A clinical South Africa skittled Afghanistan for 56 on their way to a comprehensive nine-wicket victory in the first T20 World Cup semifinal here on Wednesday, sending the Proteas into their first ever final.

It was a first victory in eight short-format World Cup semifinals going back to 1992 for South Africa.

The perennial underachievers looked anything but as they ripped through the Afghan batting in less than 12 overs at Brian Lara Stadium to restrict their shell-shocked opponents to their lowest ever score in the T20Is.

South Africa’s batting has stuttered at times during the tournament and Fazalhaq Farooqi bowled Quinton de Kock early, but Reeza Hendricks and skipper Aiden Markram got the Proteas to their target without further losses inside nine overs.

“Really chuffed for us to have one more crack at lifting a trophy,” Markram said. “A lot of our games have been really close and I know there’s a lot of people back at home in the early hours of the morning waking up, and we’ve given them a lot of grey hairs. So hopefully this evening was a little bit more comforting for them.”

Afghanistan, playing their first semifinal after a thrilling victory over Bangladesh in their last Super Eight match in St Vincent on Monday, won the toss and chose to bat. — Reuters

Scoreboard

Afghanistan

R Gurbaz c Hendricks b Jansen 0

I Zadran b Rabada 2

G Naib b Jansen 9

A Omarzai c Stubbs b Nortje 10

M Nabi b Rabada 0

N Kharote c de Kock b Jansen 2

K Janat lbw b Shamsi 8

R Khan b Nortje 8

N Ahmad lbw b Shamsi 0

Naveen lbw b Shamsi 2

F Farooqi not out 2

Extras: (b 6, lb 1, w 6) 13

Total: (All out, 11.5 overs) 56

FOW: 1-4, 2-16, 3-20, 4-20, 5-23, 6-28, 7-50, 8-50, 9-50, 10-56

Bowling O M R W

Marco Jansen 3 0 16 3

Keshav Maharaj 1 0 6 0

Kagiso Rabada 3 1 14 2

Anrich Nortje 3 0 7 2

Tabraiz Shamsi 1.5 0 6 3

South Africa

Q de Kock b Farooqi 5

R Hendricks not out 29

A Markram not out 23

Extras: (nb 1, w 2) 3

Total: (1 wicket, 8.5 overs) 60

FOW: 1-5

Bowling O M R W

Naveen-ul-Haq 3 0 15 0

Fazalhaq Farooqi 2 0 11 1

Rashid Khan 1 0 8 0

Azmatullah Omarzai 1.5 0 18 0

Gulbadin Naib 1 0 8 0

Player of the Match: Marco Jansen

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