MATCH STORIES
Follow UsWhen Rashid Khan called it right at the toss, he had no hesitation in opting to bat first.
Batting first, really, was a no-brainer for Afghanistan. Prior to this semi-final, they had batted first four times in this T20 World Cup and had emerged victorious on all four occasions.
Batting first helps Afghanistan play to their strength, enabling their spinners to choke the opposition batters in the second innings.
But on June 26 (Wednesday) in Trinidad, the Afghans, in the biggest game in the country’s history, were blown away by a combination of extravagant seam movement, inconsistent bounce, and some truly outstanding seam bowling from a world-class South African pace unit.
Heading into the semis, Afghanistan, throughout the tournament, were carried by their openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran — the pair had accounted for an astonishing 58% of all the runs the team had scored in the group stages and Super 8s.
To say Afghanistan were over-reliant on the pair would be a massive understatement. Either way, considering the non-existent form of the middle-order, the side once again needed their openers to put up a special performance in order to take the fight to South Africa.
But horror unfolded as both Gurbaz (0) and Zadran (2) perished for single-digit scores.
One run was all Gurbaz needed to break the all-time record for the most runs scored by a wicket-keeper in a single T20 World Cup edition. But, on just his third ball, he ended up slicing a half volley from Marco Jansen straight to Reeza Hendricks, who was stationed at a flying slip position.
But it was the dismissal of Gulbadin Naib, two overs later, that truly proved to be the sign of things to come. After beginning the second over in awry fashion — WD 4 0 WD — Jansen finally got his radar right on the third ball, pitching one just outside off-stump on a good length.
On a ‘normal’ surface, considering Jansen’s height, the ball would have comfortably passed the stumps. But here in Trinidad, the good length delivery not only kept low, but seamed back in viciously to knock over Gulbadin’s stumps.
16/2 in 2.3 overs, Afghanistan were already in trouble.
But things soon got a whole lot worse for them once Kagiso Rabada got introduced into the attack.
Rabada, by his standards, had enjoyed a somewhat ordinary T20WC up until the semis — not being at his best in multiple games — but the right-armer usually proves to be unplayable in the right conditions. Across formats.
He is close to untouchable on wickets back home in South Africa in Tests because there's pretty much no one better than him when it comes to exploiting seam movement and inconsistent bounce.
Rabada, tonight, was bowling in Trinidad, but it might very well have been SuperSport Park in Centurion considering the way it was behaving.
Rabada was never going to get it wrong on a surface like this.
On his very first ball, the right-armer castled Zadran with an absolute peach - a carbon copy of about half his dismissals in Tests back home. The ball pitched outside off on a full-ish good length, seamed back in viciously, went through the gates of the batter and kissed the bails. Unplayable as it can get.
To Afghanistan's dismay, three balls later, Rabada replicated the exact same delivery AGAIN to send Mohammad Nabi packing for a duck.
20/4 in 4.0. Afghanistan were in deep, deep trouble.
It did not take long for things to get uglier.
20/4 became 23/5 when Jansen got his third of the night by bouncing out Nangeyalia Kharote. Dug into the surface, Kharote looked to hook Jansen but only ended up gloving the ball tamely to Quinton de Kock behind the stumps.
Two overs later, all hope was lost when the last recognized batter, Azmatullah Omarzai, perished trying to take on Anrich Nortje. Omarzai got caught at sweeper cover, and with him departed Afghanistan’s chances.
From 28/6, all South Africa needed to do was ensure that Afghanistan’s tail did not wag. The Proteas needed to make sure that there were no slip-ups with the ball that allowed Afghanistan to stitch a couple of partnerships and get back into the contest.
And they did just that, courtesy Tabraiz Shamsi. Brought into the attack in the 10th over, Shamsi cleaned up the tail in 11 balls to bowl Afghanistan out for 56, the lowest-ever total in a knockout game in World Cup history, format notwithstanding.
This was supposed to be the greatest night in Afghanistan’s history. Yet, on such a massive occasion, they ended up enduring their biggest failure ever.
Sport can be cruel sometimes.
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