Sensational South Africa down Afghanistan to reach T20 World Cup final for the first time

A sensational bowling performance helped South Africa blow away Afghanistan in the first  semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2024 in Tarouba and reach a World Cup final for the first time in their cricket history. 

The nine-wicket victory was a historic triumph for the Proteas as they qualified for a World Cup final after seven failures. 

Afghanistan, playing their first semifinal of any major ICC event, were bundled out for a paltry 56 as the South African quicks proved too strong for them on a spicy pitch offering variable bounce. 

It was the lowest total by any team in a T20 World Cup semifinal. Afghanistan were the first team to get bundled out under 100 in a semifinal.

56 was Afghanistan's lowest T20I total and also the lowest against South Africa in this format.

In reply, South Africa lost Quinton de Kock early to Fazalhaq Farooqi. De Kock's scalp was Farooqi's 17th in the tournament, the most by any bowler in a single edition of the T20 World Cup. 

The Afghanistan bowlers troubled South Africa on a number of occasions but Reeza Hendricks (29* off 23) and Aiden Markram (23* off 21) were patient enough to see off the threat.

Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada set the tone for South Africa with decisive spells in the powerplay. 

Both of them hit the hard length and attacked the stumps. The duo, besides swinging the ball, managed to extract enough bounce off the pitch to push the Afghanistan batters to the back foot.

Jansen looked to bowl as straight as he could, often at the expense of wides. 

The left-arm seamer was the one to draw first blood when he got Afghanistan's form player Rahmanullah Gurbaz to edge the ball to Reeza Hendricks at slip.

Jansen got his second in his next over when he got it to shape back into Gulbadin Naib and shattered his stumps. 

Rabada, on the other hand, snared opener Ibrahim Zadran and Mohammad Nabi in identical fashion in the fourth over, getting the ball to nip back off good length and disturbing the timber. 

Nangeyalia Kharote was promoted to number six but was the fifth batter to lose his wicket inside the powerplay. At the end of six overs, Afghanistan were 28 for five. 

Azmatullah Omarzai (10 off 12) tried to take the attack back to the bowlers with a couple of boundaries but Anrich Nortje got the better of him in his first over. 

Rashid Khan and Karim Janat tried to get a partnership going but Tabraiz Shamsi's double strike reduced Afghanistan to 50-8 at the halfway stage.

Afghanistan could manage only six runs more as Shamsi got his third to finish things off.