South Africa 187 for 6 (Rickelton 61, de Kock 59, Omarzai 3-41, Rashid 2-28) beat Afghanistan 187 (Gurbaz 84, Ngidi 3-26) in the Super Over
A couple of metres either side, and Afghanistan would have had another shot at beating South Africa in a T20I for the first time. Losing semi-finalists last edition, now they are left needing more than just wins against UAE and Canada to make it out of the first round.
Rickelton, de Kock get the better of spin
It was de Kock – only 6.94 per over against spin so far in his T20 career – who broke the shackles after a start of 12 for 1 in four overs. Whatever de Kock did, though, Rickelton did with more brute force. Left-arm wristspinner Noor, brought in this match as the only change, bore the biggest brunt of it. De Kock welcomed him with a six over long-on first ball, and two balls later Rickelton hit an even bigger one.
The duo even got to their fifties in the same over: the 11th, bowled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Rickelton took only 23 balls, de Kock 34, but it was de Kock who had taken on spin early on.
Rashid brings Afghanistan back
Gurbaz stuns South Africa
It started with a gentle full toss from Lungi Ngidi, but pretty soon Gurbaz was taking down the best balls the other bowlers had to offer. He backed away and ramped an accurate short ball from Jansen for six. The first ball he faced from Rabada he upper-cut over deep third for an even bigger six. George Linde, the tall left-arm spinner who was going to be crucial, met the same fate first ball: Gurbaz made room and hit him on the up and down the ground for a six over long-off.
Ngidi, Maharaj keep chipping away
The Player of the Match Ngidi came back superbly from that 13-run first over. He dealt almost exclusively in slower balls even with the new ball. One of them dipped under the bat of Ibrahim Zadran, and another drew a return catch from Gulbadin Naib, which Ngidi took with a full-length dive to his right.
While Gurbaz successfully got the better of Linde, the other left-arm spinner, Maharaj, was excellent in not conceding a boundary in his first three overs. Even when Gurbaz managed to hit a six off him, he came back immediately with a slow wide ball, which Gurbaz edged to backward point for a diving catch for Linde. Maharaj’s figures: 4-0-27-1 despite two harsh wide calls.
Regulation-time drama
It was now down to the IPL trio of Rashid, Nabi and Azmatullah Omarzai for Afghanistan with the asking rate hovering around 10 for the last seven overs or so.
Ngidi’s slower balls were offset by Jansen’s pace, which Omarzai hit for two fours. Linde made a comeback with Nabi’s wicket from over the wicket but Rashid immediately swept him away for four to keep Afghanistan in the hunt. Rabada executed slower balls and yorkers perfectly in the 17th over, but Rashid still hit two fours somehow: a slower ball pulled between cow corner and deep square leg, and a yorker squeezed past point.
In the 18th over, bowled by Ngidi, Stubbs caught Omarzai at the edge of long-on, tossed the ball up, stepped over and came back in to give South Africa the advantage. A diving catch by David Miller in the 19th over sent Rashid back for 20 off 12.
Nineteen needed off nine, only tailenders left, South Africa should have cruised home, but Jansen either missed a yorker or got greedy for a lower-order wicket and bowled an on-pace slot ball to Noor. Bang it went for six, and we were back on again despite a run-out off the last ball of the over.
South Africa were celebrating first ball of the last over with Noor caught in the off side, but Rabada had overstepped. Incredibly Ahmad smoked another six off a slower short ball, and another no-ball made it a cruise for Afghanistan. They could have taken a single off the fourth ball, a free hit, and taken their time to get another single off the next two balls. That was probably the message that came out from the dugout but was intercepted by the umpires and the messenger was sent back. They set off for the non-existent second off the free hit, and failed to make it despite a wide throw.
First Super Over
Gurbaz must have felt he didn’t need to reprise his heroics from regulation time when Omarzai hit a six and two fours off Ngidi in the first Super Over to set South Africa a stiff 18 runs to get. Farooqi nearly redeemed himself after than run-out by getting Dewald Brevis out and making it 11 needed off three. Cruelly, a perfect yorker squirted off the bottom edge for four, and then he missed the yorker last ball, allowing Stubbs to hit a flat six over the short straight boundary.
Second Super Over
Omarzai was now put through the ringer after he had nearly done enough with the bat in the first Super Over. This time Stubbs got stuck into the first ball, and Miller demolished errors in length for two more sixes to set Afghanistan 24 in one over to essentially stay alive in the tournament.
South Africa sprung a surprise by throwing the ball to Maharaj, their second-best bowler in regulation time but also a spinner. However, it did result in a change in plans for Afghanistan: they split the unbeaten pair from the first Super Over and sent in Nabi, a better hitter of spin. It didn’t work out as he grabbed a two-ball duck.
Gurbaz, though, refused to lose. He didn’t deserve to lose. Short flat ball. Over long-off. Now three sixes needed off three. Flighted and slow. Six again. Now two needed off two. Fired in on a length and heaved over wide long-on.
With six needed off the last ball, surely we can’t have another tie? We can, because Maharaj bowls a wide. Then he goes wide again, Gurbaz slices it, nobody behind backward point, but he ends up hitting it straight to Miller for his second catch of the Super Over.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo
