Afghanistan accomplished one of its historic wins against South Africa in the second ODI series and triumphed the match by 177 runs on Friday. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the chief scorer and his century guided Afghanistan to post a commendable total in the batting innings.
Rashid Khan caused the South African birds to fly by claiming five scalps in the game that did much damage to the batting order of South Africa. The effectiveness of the bowlers helped in a great deal to turn things around as there was added pressure on the depleted South Africa team. Khan’s knack of taking wickets at crucial junctions and controlling the tempo of the game is what brought differences to Afghanistan’s arm twisting victory. Proving the worth of a world-class bowler to the team, who he constructed and executed plans towards the two-match series victory against air warriors, Khan was prominent among them.
Such an all-round performance can only strengthen the capabilities of the development of Afghanistan which would have left South Africa at pains and wanting to engage in the most tactically set out and motivated Afghan against South Africa.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored a brilliant and match-winning 105 runs as Afghanistan made a total of 311 runs with four wickets in hand. South Africa’s batsman on the contrary, were bought quickly into nine falls at 61 runs only. Afghanistan registered their crushing victory by bowling out the Proteas for a mere 134 runs within 35 overs extending their impressive form in international competitions and further demoralizing exhausting the South Africans in the second ODI.
In the past, Riaz Hassan and Gurbaz put on an opening stand of 88 – after which Aiden Markram went on dismissing Hassan for 29. Rahmat Shah first joined the more informed of the two openers and his partnership of 101 runs included shots from Gurbaz, who was eventually bowled out by Nandre Burger at the score of 105.
In reply, Temba Bavuma and Tony de Zorzi added 73 runs for the first wicket in 14 overs but things went awry when Bavuma, who was battling the contest well, got out. This saw Rashid Khan come back to the fore attack and this changed the game completely with South Africa collapsing in quick time. Khan had a big hand in this turnaround as Afghanistan controlled the blade in the second ODI clinching it with relative ease.
Things got heated up during the powerplay with the Proteas failing to find their feet scoring a paltry 11 in the next four overs. Temba Bavuma and his fellow device Tony de Zorzi were removed from the pitch along with the rest of the South African batting order and the inevitable had become South Africa’s batting collapse.
Afghanistan proved too strong with the ball, as they bowled out the team in just 20.3 overs, losing all the ten wickets. This was a turnaround for the Proteas, as it was their turn to chase the posting nowhere close to the desired figure which subsequently proved fatal as well.
“The purpose of the openers was to set the stage. Well, Tony and I started off okay but the spinners came. It wasn’t overall a good performance. It wasn’t a good performance from us. We take the lessons and make the best of the situation. There’s another chance for the guys to express themselves out here.”
“Simply put, we should be better than that. I saw Omarzai managing to play well and putting pressure on us, huts the credit goes to Gurbaz who laid the foundation. There were Two two in our team who sunk in and set the structure but were unable to proceed,” said Bavuma.
The series going on, Afghanistan awaits the next third and the final game that is set to take place in Sharjah this Sunday. Rashid Khan was named player of the match despite suffering a hamstring injury and everybody is optimistic they shouldn’t stress him as he may not play the last match.
“I had a hamstring injury but I made sure that I was in the field of play as much as normal so that I could play for the team,” regretted Rashid Khan. “There was a good chance for us to wrap up the series against a stronger team, so I had to last for a little longer.” Angry over the injury, Khan managed to exert his influence in the game and led the Afghan side to a historic win over the South Africans.
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