South Africa stormed into the final of the ICC T20 after three decades

South Africa stormed into the final of the ICC T20 after three decades

New Delhi June 27: South Africa washed the tag of choker and stormed into the final of the ICC World T20 on Thursday.

The Proteas beat Afghanistan by 9 wickets in in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2024 at the Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba in Trinidad. South Africa reached into final of an ICC World Cup after three decades.

With the win, South Africa has qualified for the final of the T20 World Cup to be played on Saturday in Barbados. The winner of the game between India and England later in the evening at Guyana will join the Proteas to claim the title.

Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch where bowlers have an advantage. The pitch has uneven bounce and it cost Afghanistan. It has bundled out just 56 runs in 11.5 overs and only one batsman Azmatullah Omarzai reached the double-figure mark. He scored 10 runs in 12 balls. Captain Rashid Khan played a knock of 8 runs.

The Afghanistan team was heavily dependent on Rahamanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran and both of them failed to make a good impression with the bat on the big day. Gurbaz was out for a duck and Zadran was out for 2 runs.

While chasing the 56 runs, Reeza Hendricks and skipper Aiden Markram have taken South Africa to a nine-wicket victory over Afghanistan.

Reeza Hendricks scored 29 runs in 25 balls hitting 1 six and 3 fours while Aiden Markram scored 23 runs in 21 balls hitting 4 fours.

Earlier, Marco Jansen’s three-wicket burst with the new ball essentially derailed the batting line-up of Afghanistan. Besides Jansen, Tabraiz Shamsi also took 3 wickets for just 6 runs, Kagiso Rabada took 2 Afghanisan’s wickets for just 14 runs and Anrich Nortje took 2 wickets at the cost of just 7 runs.

EOM.