TAROUBA: A long, tortuous World Cup title drought is closer than ever to ending for South Africa after a nine-wicket win over first-time semifinalist Afghanistan at the global Twenty20 cricket tournament on Wednesday.
Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada set the foundations for the lopsided victory with destructive opening bursts of pace bowling to have Afghanistan reeling at 20-4 in the fourth over, and eventually all out for a paltry 56.
The South Africans lost just one wicket in pursuit of its first semifinal win at a global men’s limited-overs tournament, with Reeza Hendricks hitting a six and a four on consecutive deliveries to lift South Africa to 60 for 1 in the ninth over.
Hendricks was unbeaten on 29 from 25 balls in an unbroken 55-run second-wicket stand with skipper Aiden Markram, who finished 23 not out.
The South Africans will face either d efending champion England or India in the final at Barbados on Saturday.
“One more step — it’s an exciting challenge for us,” Markram said in a post-match TV interview. “We’ve never been there (in a final) before, and nothing to be scared of.
“It’s an opportunity that we’ve never had and, and we’ll be really excited about that opportunity.”
The South Africans lost six and tied one — against eventual champion Australia in 1999 — of their previous seven trips to the semifinals of a World Cup in either the one-day or T20 formats.
Markram said those stats belonged to the teams that played those matches, and his lineup was full of belief.
Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan won the toss and opted to bat in his team’s first ever appearance in a World Cup semifinal. Everything went South Africa’s way after that.
Jansen (3-16) took wickets in the first and third overs and Kagiso Rabada (2-14) opened with a double-wicket maiden as Afghanistan slumped to 20-4 after 3.4 overs.
The opening pair that had carried Afghanistan so well during the tournament was gone, exposing the middle and lower order to a South Africa bowling attack hitting form at the perfect stage.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) faced three balls before he edged to slip and was out to Jansen in the first over. Ibrahim Zadran (2) was beaten by a Rabada inswinger and bowled on the first ball of the third over.
Anrich Nortje (2-7) chimed in with two wickets as the pacemen continued to rip through the Afghanistan innings before wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took three wickets in 11 deliveries — all lbw decisions to balls keeping low — to finish off Afghanistan for 56 in 11.5 overs.
Azmattullah Omarzai top scored with 10, the only Afghan batter to reach double figures.
South Africa lost only opener Quinton de Kock — bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi for five in the second over — in the run chase.
“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 of South Africa’s bowling onslaught. “We just felt that we needed to continue in that vein.
“And today it just happened for us.”
Asked if this is the team to finally end South Africa’s World Cup drought, Rabada was confident: “We 100 percent believe that this is the team.”
Afghanistan was playing in the last four for the first time, and it entered the match with three of the five leading bowlers in the tournament and two of the top three batters, based on runs scored.
South Africa remains unbeaten at the tournament, but had to endure tough contests and narrow wins over Nepal, Netherlands, Bangladesh and England and only beat West Indies with five balls to spare in the Super Eight stage.
“A lot of our games have been really close and I know there’s a lot of people back at home in the early hours of the morning, waking up and we’re giving them a lot of gray hair!” Markram said. “So hopefully this evening was a little bit more comforting for them.”
South Africa beats Afghanistan to reach the Twenty20 World Cup final, ending a long cricket drought
https://arab.news/9335z
South Africa beats Afghanistan to reach the Twenty20 World Cup final, ending a long cricket drought
- Reeza Hendricks hit a six and a four off consecutive deliveries to lift South Africa to 60 for 1 in the ninth over, easily surpassing Afghanistan’s 56
Ortiz shoots 60 to lead Burmester by 2 at LIV Golf Hong Kong
- Torque GC lead the team competition after the first round
HONG KONG: Carlos Ortiz’s approach shot from 152 meters on his final hole Thursday at HSBC LIV Golf Hong Kong was headed directly toward the flag. Despite the long odds of holing out, for a brief moment, shooting 59 was a possibility.
The ball finished inside 60 centimeters, leaving Ortiz with a tap-in birdie for a 10-under 60 and a two-shot lead over Dean Burmester after the opening round at the Hong Kong Golf Club.
Not only was it Ortiz’s lowest round in his professional tournament career, it was the third time in LIV Golf history that a player has shot 60.
Just three rounds have been lower: Bryson DeChambeau’s historic 58, and the two 59s by Ortiz’s Torque GC teammates Joaquin Niemann and Sebastian Munoz.
“It was a great round … I think I hit it very close, like four or five times I just tapped it in. That doesn’t happen much, so it’s awesome when you don’t even have to get the putter out. Very pleased,” said Ortiz.
It was certainly the best round of a multitude of low scores at Fanling. Burmester’s 62 matches his score the previous round he played here, when the Southern Guards’ star finished second last season to the Fireballs GC’s captain Sergio Garcia.
Garcia, meanwhile, shot 63 while extending his streak of bogey-free holes at Hong Kong Golf Club to 63. He is tied for third with Smash GC captain Talor Gooch along with Scott Vincent, who shot the lowest round ever for a wild card player.
In all, 28 players shot 67 or better on a course that was soft due to rain leading up to the opening round. Included in that group was Anthony Kim, who shot 67 in his first start since winning LIV Golf Adelaide last month.
“As you can see by the scoring, it’s playing softer and a lot easier than it generally is,” Burmester said.
“But I know Saturday and Sunday the wind is going to come up, so I think that’ll toughen the course up. It’ll dry out and then we’ll get the true experience of Fanling.”
Ortiz was just two-under through his first nine holes and coming off a bogey at the par-four eighth. But he saved par at the ninth, then followed with three straight birdies on holes 10 to 12, including a chip-in at 11. He then eagled the par-five 13th after hitting his second shot to 155 centimeters.
“Obviously I played great coming in,” said Ortiz, seeking his second individual LIV Golf victory. Fueled by his 60, Torque also has the team lead at 21-under, two shots ahead of Smash GC.
Burmester called his round “pretty flawless” other than an error on the ninth when he chose the wrong club off the tee. Having come close last year, he can now chase his third LIV Golf title over the final 54 holes.
“I’m very proud of the way I kind of just hung together and kept pushing in birdies,” Burmester said.
“I saw a lot of guys making birdies, and I managed to do the same. Normally when that happens you feel like you’ve got to chase, and I never felt like I was doing that. I just felt like I was within myself, so it’s one of those good in-the-zone days for sure.”
Garcia always seems to be in the zone at Fanling. He has not suffered a bogey at Fanling since his ninth hole in the opening round last year, and on Thursday, he hit all 18 greens in regulation.
“I’ve always said it, that I’ve always enjoyed the courses that make you think, not the courses that you get on the tee and you know you have to hit driver as hard as you can and there’s nothing else to do,” said Garcia.
He is now seeking the 39th victory of his legendary career. “Obviously these are the kind of courses that I enjoy playing. These are the kind of courses that I feel most comfortable on.”
