New Delhi. Afghanistan, which had raised sky-high hopes, surrendered badly to South Africa in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. South Africa, infamous as ‘chokers’, all out Afghanistan for 56 runs. This is the smallest score in any semi-final of the Cricket World Cup. Earlier, the record of lowest score in the semi-finals of T20 World Cup was in the name of Sri Lanka (128/6). The Sri Lankan team was stumped at 128 runs against England in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2010.
The ‘Kabuliwalas’, who reached the semi-finals after defeating Australia and New Zealand, disappointed a lot in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. Afghanistan team could not even keep 80 balls on the field against South Africa. South Africa all out Afghanistan in just 11.5 overs.
The Afghanistan team, which reached the semi-finals by giving the best performance in its cricket history, disappointed its fans on Thursday. The Afghan team, which won the toss and came to bat first, had a bad start. His opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz was out without opening the account. Then whichever batter came, it seemed he was in a great hurry to return. The result was a fall of wickets. Afghanistan team, which lost the first wicket for four runs, lost the fourth wicket for 20 runs, fifth wicket for 23 runs and sixth wicket for 28 runs. Within no time the entire team was all out after scoring 56 runs in 77 balls.
Number four batsman Azmatullah Omarzai was Afghanistan’s top scorer. He scored 10 runs in 12 balls. The interesting thing is that ‘Mr Extra’ had a bigger score than Omarzai. Afghanistan got 13 runs as extra.
Tabrez Shamsi and Marco Jansen took the most wickets for Afghanistan. Both of them took 3-3 wickets. Shamsi took 3 wickets for 6 runs in a spell of just 1.5 overs. Yansen gave 16 runs in a spell of 3 overs and took 3 wickets. Kagiso Rabada and Enrique Norcia took two wickets each.