South Africa put on a dominant display in the T20 World Cup semifinal crushing Afghanistan by nine wickets to secure their first-ever spot in a World Cup final.
The Proteas bowlers set the tone early ripping through Afghanistan’s top order. Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada exploited the tricky Tarouba pitch taking five wickets in the first five overs. Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi then cleaned up the rest as Afghanistan crumbled to just 56 all out.
Despite losing Quinton de Kock early in the chase Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks calmly guided South Africa home with 67 balls to spare. Hendricks finished unbeaten on 29.
This clinical performance dispelled any notions of South Africa’s knockout stage jitters. They controlled the match from start to finish extending their unbeaten run in the tournament to eight games.
For Afghanistan the dream run came to a harsh end. Their batsmen struggled against South Africa’s tall pacers who extracted both bounce and movement from the pitch. Only Azmatullah Omarzai reached double figures scoring 10.
South Africa’s bowlers shared the spoils with Shamsi taking 3-6 and Jansen 3-16. The comprehensive victory not only books South Africa’s place in the final but also sends a strong message to their potential opponents.
As they celebrate this historic achievement South Africa will now eagerly await the winner of the second semifinal to see who they’ll face in their first World Cup final.