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It could have been a tense match but in the end, the lack of quality bowlers in the death overs cost Afghanistan the game. The score of 244 looked below par and it proved to be in the end. After a drubbing against India, Proteas will be up and running and should look to come out all guns blazing against Australia in the semi final. Like always, it was a pleasure bringing all the live coverage for this encounter. Keep following Sportskeeda for all the latest sporting action but for now, this is me (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) signing off also on behalf of my fellow commentator and good mate Sooryanarayanan Sesha. Goodnight! Cheers!
What a story this has been for Afghanistan. Their brand of cricket was something every lower ranked teams can learn from. They did bottle the match against Australia from a situation where it was almost impossible to lose but take nothing from the bunch of young group of players who turned up on the day and became heroes for the nation. They found a new hero everyday and their batting came off age in the tournament. Not only the experinced campaigners like Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the young Turks like Azmatullah Omarzai and Ibrahim Zadran batted quite brilliantly. Afghanistan should hold their heads high for what has been a superb tournament for them.
For South Africa, they were already through to the semi final but needed to get back to winning ways before the semi final clash against Australia in Kolkata. Yet again, they were tested in a run chase but they will be happy with the way they chased it down in the end. The top order looks in terrific form barring Temba Bavuma who has struggled for runs and struggled with his hamstring today. He vouched to be fit for the semis but only time will tell. Bavuma mentioned that they have a big hurdle in their way to play the final infront of a massive crowd. Will they play their first World Cup final?
Temba Bavuma (South Africa captain): My leg is sore, dont know to what extent but it's gonna have to be fine. I have to be fine for the semi-final. I had the chance of going off, the match didn't had any bearing on our semi-final chances but still I wanted to stay on the field and strengthen my relation with the bowlers. Winning is a habit, we want to take the momentum through. Today we did something a bit differently. We batted second today and to get over that line in that manner will give us a lot of confidence. Rassie took ownership of that chase and that was a great knock. The wicket got better, when Keshav came back for his second spell I was hoping that the ball would keep gripping which it didn't. He is a good enough bowler and kept it tight. We can always pick the different facets of the game but we will take the win and the confidence. Yeah definitely, we would like to be be playing here again. We want to playing in front of a full capacity crowd. There is a big hurdle we have to get over that is Australia in Kolkata. Tommorow onwards we have to shift our focus on Australia.
Hashmatullah Shahidi (Afghanistan captain): As a captain I'm quite happy with our performances. We fought until the last moment from the beginning in each and every game. We played good matches and it's also a good learning for us in the future. (On the way the batters stepped up) Proud of the way our batters did in this tournament. We were struggling before this tournament. We sat together and talked about the weak points. At the end you saw the result how our batters did. It's a positive thing for us. Looking forward to the future. Everybody knows we have a good spin department. If we go with the same momentum what we did in the batting, we will be a better side. We gave a good message to the world in this tournament. We played big teams and fought. If we lost also we fought till the last moment. You saw the Australia game, it was in our hand. But it was shocking for us after that defeat. The way Maxwell played, I was very shocked after that game. There was a lot of learning for us too.
Rassie van der Dussen is the Player of the Match for his stoic unbeaten 76. Here's what he has to say: We were happy with bowling first. We were going to bowl first as well and chase out here. We know we have a real quality bowling attack but we wanted to test ourselves chasing here. Really glad we came out on top. Any chase, there's got to be someone who does that anchor role. We had a lovely start again with Temba and Quinny and that allowed me to assess the situation. Happy to play that role tonight and to be able to get some good partnerships in the middle there. Happy to get across the line. Sometimes when you do one thing so well - batting first - people think you're doing the other thing badly. This year we've been 50-50 with our chasing. We wanted to put ourselves in that situation and test ourselves going forward. We're happy it worked out well. (Difference in the surfaces here and Kolkata?) We'll take a lot of learnings from the last two games. Kolkata was a lot drier and it kept lower. We know what to expect going into the semifinal. Hopefully if we get back here again we'll put in a similar performance.
South Africa won by 5 wickets (with 15 deliveries to spare)
Rassie van der Dussen 76*(95) | Gerald Coetzee 4/44(10) Azmatullah Omarzai 97*(107) | Mohammad Nabi 2/35(10)
The target of 245 certainly didn't look enough at the halfway stage but with the quality of spinners Afghanistan have, they certainly gave themselves more than a chance. Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma started off proceedings and the South African skipper struggled with his hamstring all through his knock of 23. It was a strange innings as he couldn't quite take the couples and the pressure kept building on Quinton de Kock. An impressive stand of 64 came to an end when Bavuma pulled a flatter trajectory delivery of Mujeeb straight to the deep square leg fielder. Rassie van der Dussen came to build a partnership with Quinton de Kock but the latter was dismissed a couple of overs later, as Mohammad Nabi trapped him right in front of the stumps as he went for a reverse sweep.
Aiden Markram and Van der Dussen settled the chase batting with a sense of calm and composure. It required a sensational spell of bowling from Rashid Khan to break the stand. Markram was surprised by the bounce and ended up lobbing one straight to the cover point fielder. South Africa still had their noses ahead but the wicket of Heinrich Klaasen gave the Afghans a real opening into the lower half of the South African batting line up. David Miller and RvD settled the nerves down and rotated the strike with the occasional boundaries.
It was Mohammad Nabi who broke the partnership as David Miller ended up chipping the slowish delivery straight back to the bowler. The pressure seemed to be building as for the first time in the day, the required rate climbed up to more than 6. With 33 required off the final 5 overs, Afghans needed to keep the pressure but the introduction of pacer was the final nail in the coffin. Naveen-ul-Haq faced the brunt of a blistering knock from Andile Phehlukwayo. He took a liking to Naveen and smashed him for 3 sixes and a four to eventually win it for South Africa with 15 deliveries to spare. South Africa will now move to Kolkata for their semi final clash against Australia unless something extraordinary happens in the match between England and Pakistan tomorrow. They will go into the semi final confident after getting back to winning ways.
South Africa were tested but in the end, they chased down the score set by Afghanistan quite comfortably. When Miller was dismissed, Afghanistan sensed an opening but Rassie van der Dussen batted sensibly and towards the end, Phehlukwayo turned it on with a series of big shots as South Africa chased it down with 15 deliveries to spare in the end. Nicely done by South Africa, despite the nerves they managed to come through. A calm and composed partnership of a run a ball 65 and South African finishes the group stage with a win while the Afghans can hold their heads very high after such a sensational campaign.
47.3 Naveen-ul-Haq to Andile Phehlukwayo, SIX! FINISHES IT IN STYLE! Picks the slower length delivery at the stumps and heaves it out of sight with a pick-up behind square on the leg-side as he holds his ground. Swung powerfully over the fence and Phehlukwayo duly seals what was a tricky chase for large parts. South Africa romp home by five wickets with 15 deliveries to spare!
47.2 Naveen-ul-Haq to Andile Phehlukwayo, FOUR! DRILLED! Overpitched on the off stump and Phehlukwayo thrashes it with a powerful drive between cover and mid-off as he hangs back in his crease. Picks out the extra cover fence with all might and South Africa are just one hit away!
That has almost certainly sealed that for the Proteas. A short one which has been powered away over the deep midwicket fence.
Video
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Q de Kock
R Khan
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Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
