South Africa 60 for 1 (Hendricks 29*, Farooqi 1-11) beat Afghanistan 56 (Shamsi 3-6, Jansen 3-16) by nine wickets
For a team infamous for playing jittery cricket in the knockouts, this win was dominant and clinical. South Africa left next to nothing to chance. They bowled beautifully, fielded well, and weathered some difficult early overs, while pouncing on the loose balls.
For their reward, they have their first ever berth to a men’s World Cup final, and continued their unbeaten run, which now is up to eight matches. The margin of victory, by nine wickets and with 67 balls remaining, underscores the control they exerted on this match, from start to finish.
Jansen and Rabada rip out the top order
Rabada’s first over really sent Afghanistan into a nosedive. He jagged two balls back, and hit timber on both occasions. The ball that clipped the top of Ibrahim Zadran’s middle stump was the killer – Ibrahim at that point Afghanistan’s best hope of getting to a good score. Fourth ball, he took out Nabi’s off stump with an even more stunning delivery. That over was a double-wicket maiden.
Nortje and Shamsi do the rest
Shamsi bowled a leg-stump line to the right handers and kept getting them lbw, as the balls rushed on to them. They reviewed all three decisions, but the on-field umpires had given them out, and umpires’ calls on impact were good enough.