South Africa reached their first-ever ICC T20 World Cup final after a comfortable win over Afghanistan by 9 wickets at Brian Lara Stadium, Trinidad and Tobago. With this win, Proteas broke their ICC tournament semifinal jinx thanks to an exceptional spell of pace bowling.
Opting to bat first, Afghanistan were bundled out for 56 in 11.5 overs. Azmatullah Omarzai was the top scorer with 10 runs as Afghanistan struggled to build a meaningful partnership.
Marco Jansen and Tabraiz Shamsi both took 3 wickets with 2 each for Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje. Rabada got his two wickets in the space of four balls knocking over the stumps of Ibrahim Zadran and Mohammad Nabi.
Shamsi helped to clean up the tail sending Karim Janat (8), Noor Ahmad (0) and Naveen-ul-haq (2) back to the pavilion.
Afghanistan’s 57 was the lowest-ever total by any team in a knockout match of the ICC T20 World Cup.
Chasing a small target, South Africa lost Quinton de Kock early. However, there were no further casualties for Proteas as Reeza Hendricks (29) and Aiden Markram (23) comfortably guided their team over the line.
South Africa won the contest with 67 balls remaining which is their biggest win by the number of balls remaining in a T20I.
Marco Jansen was awarded the Man of the Match for his impressive bowling figures of 3/16 in his 3 overs.
“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”. Jansen said in the post-match interview.
South Africa To Play India or England in Final
The Proteas will look to win their first ICC trophy since 1998 when they face the winner of Semi-Final 2 at Providence Stadium, Guyana between India and England.
This will be South Africa’s first-ever appearance in the ICC T20 World Cup final. They are known for their semifinal jinx as they often fall in the last 4 stages of ICC events. However, such was not the case this time around as the Proteas comfortably saw off the challenge from the resilient Afghanistan side and booked their place in the final.
India and England will battle it out in the other semifinal to set up a much-awaited final against South Africa.
The final will be played on Sunday, June 29 in Barbados.
Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
