T20 World Cup: South Africa Crush Afghanistan To Enter Final

South Africa has entered the final of the T20 World Cup after registering a crushing win over Afghanistan in the first semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2024 played in Trinidad and Tobago. South Africa won the match inside ten overs with nine wickets in hand courtesy of a half-century partnership between opener Reeza Hendricks and captain Aiden Markram. This will be South Africa’s first appearance in the final of any edition of the T20 World Cup.

T20 World Cup: South Africa Crush Afghanistan To Enter Final

The Start

Choosing to bat first after winning the toss Afghanistan got off to a horrific start as both the openers were dismissed in the first three overs of the Afghan innings courtesy of some disciplined bowling from the South African newball bowlers led by Marco Jenson and Kagiso Rabada who picked up three and two wickets respectively to reduce Afghanistan to a score of 28/6 in the first ten overs of Afghanistan’s batting innings. 

The Bowling Effort

Both the bowlers got good support from their fellow bowlers Anrich Nortje and Tabrez Shamsi both of whom played crucial roles in cleaning up Afghanistan’s middle and lower order to bowl them out for a low total of 56 runs and making sure that Afghanistan didn’t play their full quota of 20 overs.

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The Afghan Batting

As far as Afghanistan’s batting is concerned the only double-digit score in an otherwise disappointing batting performance was the Afghan all-rounder Azamatullah Omarzai who scored 10 runs off 12 balls followed by Rashid Khan who was the only one to show some intent by hitting two fours in his short innings of eight runs. Afghanistan’s total of runs is the lowest total by a team in a knockout match of the T20 World Cup and Afghanistan’s lowest total in the history of the T20 World Cup.

The Runchase

South Africa lost its wicketkeeper batter Quinton de Kock in the second over while chasing a small total of 57 when the team total was five runs on the eleventh ball of the South African batting innings courtesy of some accurate bowling from Fazalhaq Faaroqi who gave Afghanistan a slight hope of scripting another upset in the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup taking place in the West Indies and USA.

The Support

He was well supported by Naveen-Ul-Haq who also bowled on tight line and length to create pressure on the South African batterswho found it difficult to put their bat on the ball in the first six overs of the innings.

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The Pitch

With batters of both sides visibly struggled to bat on a pitch that provided a lot of assistance for the bowlers be it spinners or fast bowlers which resulted in questions being raised on the pitch prepared for the all-important semi-final clash between South Africa and Afghanistan as it offered uneven bounce which made it challenging for the batters to play their shots.

The Result

South Africa will now face the winner of India and England who are set to face off against each other in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Guyana on June 27 in the final in Barbados on June 29.