South Africa booked their place in the Men’s World Cup final for the first time with a nine-wicket victory over Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup semi-final at Taluluba. After a lengthy and soul-crushing defeat in an all-format semi-final at the men’s global tournament, the Proteas have been eighth time lucky and are set for a historic showdown between India and England.
After Rashid Khan won the coin toss and elected to bat first on a difficult surface at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, South African bowlers shook off any semi-final jitters to bowl Afghanistan out for 56 in the 12th over. Fazal Haq Farooqui briefly boosted Afghanistan’s hopes with the early wicket of Quinton de Kock (5), but captain Aiden Markram (23 not out) and Reeza Hendricks (29 not out) took no risks on a difficult wicket to guide South Africa to a resounding 60-1 victory on Wednesday.
Afghanistan were all out in 11.5 overs, setting a new record for the lowest total in a Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final. South Africa quickly put Afghanistan in trouble, taking eight wickets in the first 10 overs of their innings. There were early signs of danger when MVP of the match Marco Jansen caught in-form opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) with an outside edge in the first over and then clean-bowled Gulbuddin Naib (9) in the second.
Kagiso Rabada (2-14) took the wickets of Ibrahim Zadran (2) and Mohammed Nabi (0) in the next over to see Afghanistan’s top-order return to the pavilion before the fourth over had been bowled to leave Afghanistan in disarray at 20-4.
Anrich Nortje (2-7) came on in conditions that gave the pace bowlers ample opportunities and took the crucial wicket of Rashid (8) just as the Afghanistan captain was looking to launch a fightback. Tabraiz Shamsi (3-6) then cleaned up the Afghanistan tail-end to put South Africa in an ideal position to break their semi-final curse before Markram and Hendricks sealed their place with the bat in the final.
Markram praised a “special” performance from his bowling attack after the match. “I think we were lucky to lose the toss otherwise we would have struggled,” he said. “But the bowlers still had to bowl enough balls in the right places and really made things difficult for the Afghanistan batsmen.”
“We’re just one step away. It’s an exciting challenge for us, something we’ve never experienced before. But we’re not afraid. This is an opportunity we’ve never had before, and we’re really excited about the opportunity.”
South Africa had already won as many games in one Men’s T20 World Cup tournament before facing Afghanistan and are in ominous form, unbeaten in all eight matches, going into Sunday’s final. Afghanistan had reached the semi-finals for the first time in any format of the World Cup but looked tired and ultimately fell short in the match for a place in the finals, meaning their fight is over.
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“It was a tough night for us as a team,” Rashid said. “We could have played a little bit better but I think the conditions didn’t allow us to play how we wanted to. But that’s what T20 is all about – you need to be mentally well prepared for any condition or situation. They bowled exceptionally well.”
“But overall I’m happy with how we controlled ourselves in pressure situations.” [in the tournament]We faced some tough situations, but the players responded extremely well. For me, this was a great joy, along with beating a strong team in this tournament.”
