South Africa beat Afghanistan by nine wickets in the first Twenty20 World Cup semi-final on Wednesday in Trinidad. Marco Jansen and Tabraiz Shamsi each took three wickets as South Africa bowled Afghanistan out for 56 runs.
The Proteas won their first long-form World Cup semi-final since 1992. They will now play the winner of Thursday’s second semi-final between India and the defending champions England in their first final on Saturday.
The team that never seems to do well looked like they were about to do something great as they destroyed the Afghan openers in less than 12 overs at Brian Lara Stadium, holding them to their lowest score ever in a T20 international.
South Africa’s batting has been shaky at times during the event. Fazalhaq Farooqi bowled Quinton de Kock early on, but Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks got the Proteas to their goal without losing any more wickets in nine overs.
Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bat in their first semi-final after a thrilling win over Bangladesh in their last Super Eight match in St. Vincent on Monday.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored the most runs at the event, and he and Ibrahim Zadran were the mainstays of the Afghan batting, putting together three centuries as openers on their fairy tale run to the final four.
Quick left arm In the first over, Jansen (3-16) bowled Gurbaz out for a duck with only four runs scored. In the third over, he came back and bowled Gulbadin Naib for nine.
Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada (2-14), who was on the other end, found a nice line and length to bowl Zadran and Mohammad Nabi for two runs each in the fourth over.
Anrich Nortje (2-7) took a couple of wickets as the third quick bowler, and Shamsi (3-6), a left-arm wrist spinner, cleaned up the tail end. Afghanistan was the first team in a T20 World Cup semi-final to score less than 100 runs.
The bowlers for Afghanistan made it clear to the South African batsmen that they would have to earn their spot in the final. Afghanistan was rewarded for never letting up, no matter how bad their chances looked.
Left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi, who has taken 17 wickets so far in the event, got de Kock by swinging a ball in at the opener and breaking his stumps in the second over.
Markram (23 not out) and Hendricks (29 not out) were content to play through dot balls and wait for their chances to score as they slowly moved toward their small goal.
Opener Hendricks got them over the line with a six off a free hit and a four in the next two balls. This was South Africa’s eighth straight win at the event.
