T20 World Cup 2024, AFG vs SA 1st Semi-Final Match Report, June 26, 2024

T20 World Cup 2024, AFG vs SA 1st Semi-Final Match Report, June 26, 2024

South Africa 60 for 1 (Hendricks 29*, Farooqi 1-11) beat Afghanistan 56 (Omarzai 10, Shamsi 3-6, Jansen 3-16) by 9 wickets

South Africa’s quicks ravaged Afghanistan’s high order, taking 5 wickets inside the primary 5 overs, to ship the opposition spiralling in direction of their eventual 56 all out within the first semi-final of T20 World Cup 2024.
Then, though they misplaced Quinton de Kock early, Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks calmly navigated the small chase on an exceedingly tough Tarouba pitch.

For a crew notorious for taking part in jittery cricket within the knockouts, this win was dominant and scientific. South Africa left subsequent to nothing to likelihood. They bowled superbly, fielded properly, and weathered some tough early overs whereas pouncing on the free balls.

As their reward, they’ve their first ever berth in a males’s World Cup ultimate, and continued their unbeaten run within the event, which now could be as much as eight matches. The margin of victory, by 9 wickets and with 67 balls remaining, underscored the management they exerted on this match, from begin to end.

Jansen and Rabada rip out the highest order

The Tarouba floor not solely provided lateral motion but additionally quite a lot of bounce early on. With the heights that Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada convey to the desk, South Africa had an excellent assault to take advantage of situations.
Jansen struck on the finish of the primary over to take away Afghanistan’s batter of the event – Rahmanullah Gurbaz – who edged a ball angled throughout him to Hendricks at slip. In his subsequent over, Jansen bowled Gulbadin Naib by way of the gate with a supply that darted again into him.

Rabada’s first over despatched Afghanistan actually right into a nosedive. He jagged two balls again and hit timber on each events. The ball that clipped the highest of Ibrahim Zadran’s center stump was the killer – Ibrahim at that time was Afghanistan’s greatest hope of attending to rating. Fourth ball, he took out Mohammad Nabi’s off stump with an much more beautiful supply. That over was a double-wicket maiden.

Nortje and Shamsi do the remainder

With the highest 5 gone, and their center order having failed to supply a lot proper by way of the event, Afghanistan had been critically struggling. Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi closed down the innings from there. Nortje had Azmatullah Omarzai (the one Afghan batter to get to double figures) caught at deep level, then later knocked out Rashid Khan’s off stump.

Shamsi bowled a leg-stump line to the right-handers and stored getting them lbw because the balls rushed onto them. They reviewed all three choices, however the on-field umpires had given them out, and umpires’ calls on influence had been ok.

Farooqi and Naveen cannot wreck South Africa’s high order

Coming into this match, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq had 29 wickets between them. Their solely likelihood of defending such a paltry rating was working by way of the highest order collectively.
Farooqi added to his tournament-high wicket tally in his first over, setting de Kock up with some large outswingers earlier than jagging one again in and making a multitude of his stumps.

And Naveen ought to have had Markram the following over, however most of Afghanistan’s gamers did not hear the skinny edge to the wicketkeeper, and Rashid wasn’t positive sufficient of it to evaluate the choice.

Markram and Hendricks take the chase dwelling

There have been nonetheless testing moments, because the pitch continued to play up, nonetheless usually holding low. However each time Afghanistan bowled poor deliveries, South Africa’s batters pounced. The fifth over itself yielded 13 runs – greater than a fifth of the goal. South Africa acquired dwelling within the ninth over, sparking restrained celebrations, although this was a historic victory for them.