AHMEDABAD – South Africa beat Afghanistan by 5 wickets (with 15 balls remaining) in the ICC World Cup clash at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.
Afghanistan won the toss, elected to bat first and set a 245-run target for South Africa. Chasing the target, South Africa scored the required number of runs in 47.3 overs at the loss of five wickets.
Afghanistan needed a massive victory and a significant boost to their net run rate to keep their semi-final hopes alive when they faced South Africa side looking to bounce back from a crushing defeat at the hands of India.
Afghanistan have been one of the surprise packets of the tournament with four stirring triumphs so far at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, but today’s match was the most important one in their cricket history to come with a spot in the knockout stages on the line.
Hashmatullah Shahidi’s side looked on track to clinch a critical fifth win in their last encounter until coming across a rampaging Glenn Maxwell who took the game away in Australia’s favour.
Squads
South Africa: Temba Bavuma ©, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen, Lizaad Williams.
Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi ©, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq.
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