South Africa continued their unbeaten run in the ninth ICC T20 World Cup. The Warriors reached the final of the World Cup for the first time with a big win over Afghanistan in the first semi-final of the season.
Afghanistan's innings was reduced to just 56 runs in 11.5 overs by South Africa's bowling ball. Which is their lowest total in T20Is. South Africa secured a big win by 9 wickets with 67 balls in hand. They reached the final for the first time in any edition of the World Cup in their history.
Reza Hendricks ensured victory by hitting Azmatullah Omarzai for consecutive sixes and four wickets. After losing Quinton de Kock in the first over, he made an unbroken partnership of 53 runs off 43 balls with Aiden Markram. Hendricks scored 29 off 25 balls and Markram 23 off 21 balls to leave the field with a historic victory.Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan won the toss and elected to bat at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Thursday morning Bangladesh time. This pitch is a nightmare for batsmen. Spinners also got help with uneven bounce, seam movement.
Rashid's decision stumbles in the first over. Rahmanullah Gurbaz caught at slip by Marco Jensen. After that, the Asian team could not stand up. They lost the sixth wicket by 28 runs.Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed made the biggest partnership of 22 runs in the seventh wicket. Lost 3 wickets at 50 runs. Tabrais Shamsi ended the Afghan innings by LBWing Naveen-ul-Haq as the last batsman.
Shamsi is South Africa's best bowler with 3 wickets for 6 runs. However, Marko Jensen, who set the tone at the beginning of the bowling, took 3 wickets for 16 runs. The other two pacers Kagiso Rabada and Enrique Norkia took two victims each.
Only one, Azmatullah Omarzai, has managed to touch double figures with the bat. Maximum 13 runs came from 'Mr Extra'.
Mohammad Nabi is now the batsman who has been dismissed for the most number of runs in T20 Internationals for Afghanistan. He has surpassed Rashid Khan. The highest number of wickets for Afghanistan in the World Cup. Here he surpassed Gulbadin Naib.
This set two records - the lowest runs scored by the Afghans, and the lowest innings in the knockout stages of men's T20 cricket. The previous record was in the 2023 ACA Cup semi-finals. Botswana was bowled out for 62 runs against Uganda.