South Africa book T20 World Cup finals ticket with emphatic win over Afghanistan

A belligerent bowling performance and calm from the top-order secured South Africa’s first ticket for an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final, defeating Afghanistan in the first semi-final in Trinidad on Wednesday.

Bowling Afghanistan out for just 56, South Africa hit their straps early by claiming eight wickets inside the first 10 overs of the innings.

Player of the Match Marco Jansen (3/16 from three overs), Kagiso Rabada (2/14 from three) and Anrich Nortje (2/7 off three) barely putting a foot wrong, before Tabraiz Shamsi cleaned up the tail with figures of 3/16 in just 11 balls.

It’s the first time a team has bowled out their opposition for under 100 in a Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final.

Chasing just 57, calm from South Africa’s top order forced Afghanistan’s hand in deploying Rashid Khan inside the Powerplay, moving to 34/1 after six overs.

Despite the early wicket of Quinton de Kock (5), claimed by Fazalhaq Farooqi (1/11), Reeza Hendricks (29*) and Aiden Markram (23) extinguished any Afghan threat to chase down the target inside nine overs.

After the win, Markram paid tribute to the other 14 members of the squad and the fans back home.

“It feels good (to make it to the final). It’s a massive squad effort. Really chuffed for us to have one more crack at lifting that trophy,” he said.

“There are a lot of people waking up (in South Africa) with a little bit more grey hair, but this win will be more comforting for them. We’ve never been there (to the final) before, but there’s a lot of belief. It takes a full squad to put together a really good game of cricket.”

Reflecting after his performance, Jansen hailed the simplicity of the team’s gameplan, and was quick to pay tribute to his captain.

He said: “For us, it was just sticking to the plan and bowling our best ball. The assessment was the wicket was giving us a few to work with and we just wanted to keep it simple. He’s (Markram) awesome and he keeps it calm. We will enjoy (the win) and be on it again tomorrow.”

Earlier, Jansen claimed Rahmanullah Gurbaz with an outside edge to Reeza Hendricks with the last ball of the first over to begin proceedings, before beating the defences of Gulbadin Naib (9) in his second. At the other end, Rabada made a mess of both Ibrahim Zadran and Mohammad Nabi’s stumps in the space of four balls, completing a double-wicket maiden to begin his night with two dot balls to Nangeyalia Kharote.

Coming back for a third over, Jansen strangled Kharote, gloving a pull shot to Quinton de Kock down the leg-side, before Nortje joined in with the wicket of Azmatullah Omarzai (10).

Anrich Nortje joined in by claiming Azmatullah Omarzai (10 off 12) in an attempted counter-attack, before Tabraiz Shamsi took the wickets of Karim Janat (8), Noor Ahmad (0) and Naveen-ul-haq lbw to complete the job.

De Kock was well beaten by Fazalhaq who found early movement, though Hendricks and Markram saw off Afghanistan’s late punches, trying a total of five bowlers in the 8.5 overs.

South Africa await the winner of the India v England semi-final on Thursday morning, and will play the winner in Barbados on June 29.

(ICC)