Good afternoon sports fans and a historic afternoon it is too! For the first time, after years of trying and failing, South Africa have progressed beyond the semifinals of a world tournament and made it to the finale. SA over the years have fallen into a pattern. They’ve looked fantastic against the big teams, lost to the Dutch and then completely fallen apart in the later stages and been knocked out. This time round the Proteas have done things differently. They’ve won all their games, including the Dutch and have done it all despite looking, well, pretty rubbish!
I’ve long been a proponent of momentum in cricket, winning is contagious. I also think it’s important to hit form at the right time, it’s almost impossible to be brilliant for a full month’s worth of World Cup. SA, to the detriment of Afghanistan, may be proving my point.
At 1.30am GMT SA and Afghanistan lined up at The Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Trinidad. On the line was a spot in the final and cricket history for both teams. Indeed, the men from the Northwest Frontier were already making history, it’s the first time they’ve made it through to the semifinals of a world ICC event.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. That’s what I would have done, I’ve spoken before about not letting the bigger team bat you out of the game and SA don’t always do well in a chase. Unfortunately for AFG this was the last thing that went right for them. Gurbaz was out for a duck, Zadran for 2 and Naib 9. For AFG to be competitive, they needed at least 2 of these 3 men to fire. Omarzai managed a topscore of 10 and the rest of Afghan batters capitulated 1 by 1. Not even Afghani skipper and talisman Rashid Khan could work his magic, The Frontiersman were all out for 56 in just 10 overs.
Afghanistan have some of the best bowlers in world cricket right now, both pace and spin. They were also playing a team who have a long history of turning to jelly in pinch moments. Even so, with nothing to defend, another Afghanistan World Cup miracle looked unlikely.
South Africa, who all of a sudden are looking as good as ever they have, had the runs knocked off in less than 9 overs, silencing the critics and cementing their place in Saturday’s final. As I often say anything can happen in tournament cricket, even South Africa being good.
As for Afghanistan, they have been fabulous. I have always had a soft spot for the Afghans because I’ve always liked an underdog. The Afghans aren’t underdogs anymore though. They’ve played brilliant in this tournament. They’ve been clever when they’ve needed to be, gone at it like mad men when it’s been required and kept us entertained with little glimpses of the bonkersness they have long been famous for. (Rashid Khan throwing his bat at one of his players being a good example!). Give it a few more years and I predict they will leap frog some much grander and well established cricket nations to have the name “Afghanistan” engraved on a World Trophy. They were also instrumental in knocking out Australia, for that we thank them.
That friends brings us to the second semifinal. At 3.30 this afternoon England will take on cricketing Goliath Indian in order to earn the right to defend their T20 world title on Saturday. India are a Goliath but England are a behemoth, we can win this game! Today is my birthday, so England, don’t do it for yourselves, don’t do it for pride or riches…….do it for me!
I’ll bring you all the news tomorrow.
All the best,
Nick
All The Cricket 
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