New Delhi, The first semi-final match of T20 World Cup 2024 was played today between South Africa and Afghanistan. Which was won by the South African team by 9 wickets. Along with this, South Africa has also made it to the final of the ICC T20 World Cup for the first time.
By scoring 60 runs in just 8.5 overs against Afghanistan, South Africa also qualified for the final to be held in Barbados on June 29.
South Africa will now face the winner of the second semi-final between India or England in the final today (June 27). The special thing is that South Africa has reached the final of any kind of World Cup for the first time. Which in itself is nothing short of a dream for the Proteas team.
The match was played at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad. Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. With this decision, the Afghanistan team was bowled out for just 56 runs in the semi-final match of the World Cup. This was also Afghanistan's lowest score in T20 history.
Riza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock came to open for the South African team. But de Kock (5) scored 5 runs and was clean bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqui.
But after this, Riza Hendricks (29) and skipper Aidan Markram (23) held on till the end and led their team to victory. Both returned not out. In this match, Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan won the toss and decided to bat first, but the Afghanistan team kept losing one wicket after another.
The result was that the Afghanistan team was bowled out for just 56 runs in 11.5 overs. The first wicket of the Afghanistan team fell in the form of Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0). He was dismissed on the team's score of 4 runs. After this, Gulbuddin Naib (9), Ibrahim Zadran (2), Mohammad Nabi (0) and Nangelia Kharote (2) were also dismissed cheaply.
When these five batsmen were out, the score of the Afghanistan team was 23/5. Shortly after this, Azmatullah Umarzai (10) was also out. When Umarzai got out, the score of the Afghanistan team was 28/6. Then Karim Janat (8), Noor Ahmed (0) were dismissed by Tabrez Shamsi on the score of 50 runs.
After this, in the second over, Captain Rashid Khan (8) was also dismissed on the score of 50 runs. After that, the Afghanistan team was all out as soon as Naveen Ul Haq got out after scoring 56 runs. Marke Jansen and Tabrez Shamsi took 3 wickets each from South Africa. While Kegiso Rabada and Enrique Norcia took 2 wickets each. Jensen was the 'player of the match'.SS1MS