ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 now reached its final stage but before that semis will decide who the two lucky teams will play in the final. South Africa will face Afghanistan for the very first time they qualified for the semi-final and it’s historic for them after beating Bangladesh in the last match.
Journey till now: South Africa and Afghanistan
South Africa was quite impressive though their top order was not in form still they remained unbeaten from the group stages to the Super 8 bowlers made them proud and so they qualified for the semis just because their bowlers supported them well. But now their top order is back in form so their aggression increased even more. Quinton De Cock is consistent past few games so he will be one of the X factors for this match, later bowlers like spin wizard Tabraiz Shamsi, and Keshav Maharaj will also be on the radar of Afghani batters. Pace trio Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, and Ottneil Baartman will also impress with the bowl.
Afghanistan is the most underrated team of the tournament but now they have proved that they are ready to face every team on the big stage equally, rise of cricket like Afghanistan no one could imagine that they would defeat teams like New Zealand and Australia which was a huge success for the whole team and nation. Openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran have impressed everyone and so they registered 3 century partnerships which is the highest by any team in a single T20 World Cup. Rashid Khan as a skipper has improved well so he didn’t push his performance for captaincy he equally performed well in every match with bat and bowl. Fazalhaq Farooqui has been the most consistent bowler and he is the current leading wicket-taker of the tournament. Gulbadin Naib will also be an out-of-syllabus bowler he doesn’t bowl regularly but whenever bowls gives a match-winning performance. So, this team has evolved a lot and the brand of cricket this team played till now is speechless. But this is the semi-final one poor performance will through you out of the tournament.
Stats:
- Afghanistan bowlers have dominated the powerplay in this T20 World Cup, taking 20 wickets at an economy rate of 7.19 during this phase. In comparison, South Africa has managed only ten wickets though their economy rate (5.85) is lower than Afghanistan’s.
- Afghanistan’s middle-order batters (Nos. 4-7) have the lowest strike rate (102.21) among the Super-Eight teams in this World Cup.
- Klaasen has scored 27 runs against Rashid off 21 balls while being dismissed once in T20 cricket. The sample size is slightly bigger for Miller vs Rashid, with the match-up in favor of the wristspinner: 50 runs off 42 balls with four dismissals.
- South Africa and India are the only two Full Members Afghanistan have not beaten in international cricket so far.
Match-ups:
Head-to-Head: South Africa and Afghanistan
Afghanistan 0-2 South Africa