The cricket gods have punished Afghanistan for their ugly slow play tactics against Bangladesh, flogged by South Africa in their T20 World Cup semi-final on Thursday.
With their final Super Eight match against Bangladesh on Tuesday delicately poised with rain falling, coach Johnathan Trott instructed his side to slow the game down in the hopes of triggering a rain delay.
Gulbadin Naib took it too far though, faking a hamstring injury as the bowler started to run in. The tactic worked to an extent – the covers came out and there was a brief delay.
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Afghanistan’s subsequent win over Bangladesh knocked the Aussies out of the World Cup.
“I couldn’t stop laughing,” Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja said on Nine’s Today on Thursday morning of the Naib incident.
“I mean, I talk about sport being an entertainment. That is entertainment.”
Thankfully, the match was able to continue and Afghanistan won on merit to book themselves a historic semi-final appearance against South Africa and send Australia home.
But against the Proteas on Thursday, Afghanistan were humbled – rolled for just 56, which was chased down in the ninth over.
Only one batter made double figures – Azmatullah Omarzai made 10 – and sundries was top-scorer with 13 (six wides, six byes and a leg-bye).
Tabraiz Shamsi and Marco Jansen did the bulk of the damage for the Proteas, taking three wickets each. Shamsi finished with figures of 3-6 from only 1.5 overs, and Jansen 3-16 from three overs.
Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje took two each.
Fazalhaq Farooqi gave the Afghani bowlers a glimmer of hope when he bowled Quinton de Kock in the second over of South Africa’s chase, but that was as good as it got for the cricket minnows.
Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram combined to steer the Proteas to a commanding win. Hendricks hit a six and a four from consecutive deliveries to end the match.
The win marks South Africa’s first World Cup semi-final victory after eight losses.
”We weren’t expecting that. We just wanted to come out in this game and hit our straps, the way we’ve been doing throughout the entire tournament,” Rabada said after the match.
“We just felt that we needed to continue in that vein, and today it just happened for us.”
South Africa remain undefeated in the tournament, and Rabada said he was “100 per cent” confident this was the team to end the country’s World Cup drought.
They’ll learn their opponent in Sunday morning’s (AEST) final when India and England clash on Friday, although the forecast is for poor weather for much of the day in Georgetown.
Because there is no reserve day, extra time has been allowed in an attempt to get a result.
India will enter the match having topped Group 1, while England finished second in Group 2. Should the match be washed out, India’s higher ranking would put them through to the final.