TAROUBA, Trinidad, CMC – South Africa reached their first world title match since readmission to the sport 32 years ago after their bowlers, led by Tabraiz Shamsi and Marco Jansen, dismantled the Afghanistan batting and powered them to a nine-wicket win in the first semi-final of the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup on Wednesday in Trinidad.
Unorthodox left-arm spinner Shamsi capped the demolition job with three for six from 1.5 overs. Still, beanpole left-arm pacer Jansen was the catalyst with a Player-of-the-Match spell of three for 16 from three overs. The Afghans were bowled out for their lowest T20 International total of 56 in 11.5 overs after they decided to bat under the lights at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.
Anrich Nortje hastened the destruction with two for seven from three overs, and fellow paceman Kagiso Rabada bagged two for 14 from three overs.
Pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi, the leading bowler in the tournament so far with 17 wickets, brought a bit of excitement for Afghanistan when he bowled South African left-handed opener Quinton De Kock for five in the second over.
But Reeza Hendricks, not out on 29, and South Africa captain Aiden Markram, not out on 23, made sure there was no more drama to the run chase with a calm, unbroken stand of 55 for the second wicket, and the Proteas finished on 60 for one.
Hendricks formalized the result in style with 67 balls remaining when he swung a short ball from pacer Azmatullah Omarzai for the first six of the match over square leg and drilled a four to long-off from successive balls to extend his side’s winning streak at the tournament to eight matches.
“The bowlers, not just [in this match], but the whole tournament, they’ve been outstanding,” Markram told reporters during a post-play news conference. “Probably saving the batters on certain occasions, but conditions, I would say, have been in their favor.
“Even if you say that, they still have to get it done right – and that’s exactly what they’ve been doing for us game in and out, so you have to appreciate them a lot. They’ve been perfect for us. ”
The final will take place on Saturday morning at Kensington Oval in the Barbados capital of Bridgetown. The South Africans will face the winner of the second semi-final between World No. 1 India and holders England, which will take place on Thursday at the National Cricket Stadium in Guyana.
“It’s a nice feeling to reach the final,” Markram said. “This team has been together for a long time as a white-ball group, both formats, and it’s nice for us to get to a final.
“We feel, and we believe that we can compete with the best in the world and win trophies. And it’s nice for us to have that opportunity now and make it into a final.”
It was the first win in eight white-ball World Cup semi-finals for South Africa since they were readmitted to the sport following a two-decade isolation imposed because of the country’s system of apartheid government.
It comes seven months after the Proteas failed in their attempt to reach the final of the One-day International World Cup (50 overs-a-side) in India, where eventual champions Australia beat them by three wickets in the semi-finals at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
“To be honest, I think it’s a personal and individual motivation that gets you into a final, to earn the opportunity to lift the trophy, hopefully,” Markram said.
“But we all understand this game and how it works, and how things can go for you, things can go against you, and you take that in your stride, so you reflected [seven] months ago, we couldn’t get over the line in that semi-final, and you look at [this match], a few things went our way. We managed to win the game and found ourselves in the final.”
Afghanistan, playing their first global semi-final, failed to script a comeback story after they ended the Power Play on 28 for five. None of the batters could honestly suggest their dismissal owed much to the pitch. However, its mosaic surface might have needed to have engendered confidence in its reliability.
Not one Afghan batsman reached 20, and only Azmatullah, with 10, reached double figures, and Rashid Khan’s side limped out of the tournament.
“South Africa bowled pretty well, and they knew how to be bowling the conditions once they saw how the pitch was behaving,” Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott, the former England batsman, said. “I think it’s terrible as we haven’t fired; the middle order hasn’t fired enough for this World Cup.
“We’ve perhaps been a bit too reliant on [Rahmanullah] Gurbaz and Ibrahim [Zadran] to get runs. Nobody else has got runs – and we need to find a reason. We need more batters who will score runs, be more consistent like the openers, and give us a chance in games. That’s the project for going forward.
“Certainly, in all formats, 50 overs-a-side, white-ball cricket as well, getting middle order batters and top order batters like we have in the openers with Ibrahim and Gurbaz, so that’s the focus for now – and what I take away from this World Cup, obviously, is we have been too reliant on the openers.”
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