World Cup 2019: South Africa registers easy victory over Afghanistan
South Africa and Afghanistan battled it out for their first win in the tournament. Both teams would be fighting to ensure a place in the semi-finals. South Africa have been struggling with a inexperienced batting line-up and even experienced Hashim Amla hasn’t been in a good form. Skipper Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock will look to carry their team to South Africa’s first victory in the tournament.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl first. Noor Ali Zardan and Hazratullah Zazai opened for Afghanistan. Hazratullah Zazai smashed the first boundary of the game but Beuran Hendricks ensured a low run count with a maiden over. Noor Ali Zadran hit the ball for his first four of the game.
The match was stopped due to rain and the pitch was cleared and covered. With the rain playing buzzkill throughout the tournament, the waterworks caused quite some concern for the outcome of the match.
Thankfully, the rain turned to a drizzle and the match continued.
Kagiso Rabada took the first wicket of the game as he knocks off the wicket of Hazratullah Zazai. Afghanistan are 43/1 in 10 overs. Rahman Shah sent a Chris Morris ball for a boundary bringing up the 50 in the 14th over.
Chris Morris struck again and Afghanistan lost their second wicket. Rahmat Shah went out for 6. Shah asked for a DRS and the umpire’s call was upheld. The pressure was on Afghanistan as they were 66/2 with 18 overs gone.
Phehlukwayo gets Noor Ali Zardan on a delivery on off stump kept low and the batsman called for review immediately. DRS rescued Noor Ali Zardan.
Rain stopped play a second time. Afghanistan 69/2 in 20 overs. The rain finally stopped and the ground staff started to ready the pitch for the match. In the over after resumption, Andile Phehluwayo got rid of Shahidi. Afghanistan was stumbling with three wickets down.
Noor Ali Zardan was the next to go for 32 as Imran Tahir came in to bowl. He went on to take his second wicket of the day with Asghar Afghan. Afghan batting order is crumbling to pieces and Mohammad Nabi is dismissed by Phehlukwayo.
Tahir toppled another one with Afghanistan skipper Gulbadin Naib. This marks the third wicket of the innings for Tahir. Afghanistan innings crumbled with seven wickets gone. Afghanistan struggled to reach their 100 run mark in the 29th over of the innings.
South Africa kept the pressure on and Chris Morris got Ikram Ali Khil’s wicket at 9. Rashid Khan tried to soldier on with a couple of boundaries but got caught with a amazing catch by Rassie van der Dussen. Rashid departed for 35. Tahir had a good bowling spell with four wickets to his name. Chris Morris wraps up the Afghanistan line up, getting rid of Hamid Hasan for 0. Afghanistan had a lackluster total of 125 all out in 34.1 overs. It would be an easily achievable target for the South African batsmen if they are allowed to get into stride.
South Africa were given the revised target of 127 in 48 overs and Quinton de Kock and Hamish Amla got off to a slow start chasing that total. De Kock eventually turned aggressive bringing South Africa to 35/0 at the end of 10 overs.
De Kock reached his 50 off 58 balls before Naib got him for 68 off 72 balls. De Kock and Amla put up a partnership of 104 runs, which is spectacular when chasing a meager total of 127. Andile Phehlukawyo got the winning runs. Amla was not out at 41.
It was an easy win for South Africa by 9 wickets with 116 balls to spare and registered their first win of the series. Afghanistan has now lost all their matches in the World Cup tournament so far.