South Africa defeated Afghanistan by nine wickets on Saturday in Cardiff to record their first win of the tournament. This win kept alive their slim hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
Opener Quinton de Kock was the top run-scorer with 68 runs as the Proteas coasted home in the 28th home after being handed a target of 127 runs to chase due to DLS regulations. There was a prolonged break in proceedings due to rain during the Afghanistan innings making the match a 48 overs a side contest, with one run added to the Afghanistan total.
Afghanistan only managed 125 runs before being bowled out. With the Proteas winning the toss and electing to field first, Afghanistan were blown away by their pacers and Imran Tahir and it was only a late surge from Rashid Khan that took them to a three-digit score.
The opening partnership of 39 runs between Noor Ali Zadran and Hazratullah Zazai turned out to be Afghanistan’s best of the innings. Zazai’s dismissal (22 off 23) marked the opening wicket with Kagiso Rabada getting the breakthrough. Zadran and Rahmat Shah then held on until the 16th over but contributed little to the scoreboard.
Zadran was eventually dismissed in the 22nd over by which time Afghanistan were tottering at 69/4. Tahir then took over and South Africa reduced Afghanistan to 77/7, after which Rashid Khan countered to get them past the 100-run mark.
Rashid played 25 balls in which he hit six fours and scored 35 runs but fell to Tahir in the 34th over. Two balls later, Hamid Hassan was dismissed by Chris Morris for a duck, thus squaring off another dismal performance from the Afghanistan batting lineup.
Source: Zee News