In a third match of the champions Trophy, the Proteas marked their first win over Afghanistan by a huge margin of 107 runs in Karachi. SA opener Ryan Rickelton outperformed Afghanistan’s bowling attack and smashed his maiden one-day century in the opening match of Group B, thus making the position of the south African team stronger in their pole.
Magnificent century by Ryan Rickelton laid a strong foundation for the SA batting lineup. In addition, that pitch was also helping the player by replicating the same environment, giving them the desired bounce. After Zorzi’s dismissal by spinner Mohammad Nabi, Temba Bavuma (58 off 76 balls) and Ryan Reckelton built the much-needed partnership of 100 runs, thus bagging the momentum.
Later on, South Africa middle order, led by Aiden Markaram and Rassie van der Dussen, gave the momentum to SA’S innings. Both batsmen added much needed 52 for 36 and 52 for 46 and jointly made SA cross 300 marks and a total of 315 runs.
In response to these massive targets, Afghanistan faced the early setback of losing wickets at regular intervals of time, unable to catch momentum. Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10) sent off by Lungi Ngidi. Prior to that, pressure game from the SA team was able to maintain the pressure.
Speedster Kangiso Rabada sent off Zadran (16), thus removing both openers in the span of 15 overs. Afghanistan was down to 4 wickets by the time it reached 50 runs. Later on, a moment of relief brought by Azmatullah Omarzai and Rahmat Shah.
However, their partnership of 38 runs was ended by Rabada, thus sending half of them to the pavilion in 23 overs and for just 83 runs. Fighting spirit of Rahmat Shah against the deadly bowling attack of SA was very condemnable but was not good enough to win a match.
Afghanistan team gets all out on 208 runs, leading to massive victory of South Africa, key player Rashid Khan remained wicketless in this match. He still gives some moments of entertainment to the crowd by hitting some big shots while batting. Rabada remained the highest wicket-taker for SA by snatching 3 wickets just for 36 runs. Meanwhile, Mohammad Nabi proved to be the highest wicket-taker from Afghanistan.
Edited by- Parth Singh
