Fiery South Africa pacers bundle out Afghanistan for 56 in T20 WC semifinal

Tarouba (Trinidad): South Africa pacers summoned a spell from hell to bundle out a nervous Afghanistan for a vastly underwhelming 56 in the first semifinal of the T20 World Cup here.

Marco Jansen (3/16) Kagiso Rabada (2/14) and Anrich Nortje (2/7) ripped the soul out of the Afghanistan top-order, reducing them to 28 for five inside the Powerplay, and eventually their innings folded in just 11.5 overs.

There was no coming back from that depth for Afghanistan as their dream of reaching a maiden World Cup final seemed to have ended even before it began.

While the South Africa pacers were on the money, the Afghan batters too should cope some blame for being edgy on a pitch that hid no evils apart from those deliveries that kicked up from a length.

Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the first to perish, chasing Jansen’s delivery outside the off-stump to give Reeza Hendricks an easy catch at slip.

The dismissal of in-form Gurbaz seemed to inject doses of panic in the Afghanistan line-up, and Gulbadin Naib was consumed by a lovely in-coming delivery by Jansen.

But the next two dismissals were a combination of bowler's brilliance and batters’ irrationality.

Ibrahim Zadran, on whom a lot was riding for the Afghans, did not move his feet at all against a Rabada delivery that came back a bit. There was enough room for the ball to sneak past his bat and pad to rattle Zadran's leg-stump.

Three balls later in the fourth over, Mohammad Nabi’s dismissal was along similar lines and the only difference was that Rabada disturbed the off-stump this time.

Nortje joined the party with the scalp of Azmatullah Omarzai, whose slash found Tristan Stubbs in the deep.

Gurbaz, Zadran and Omarzai have been the leading run-makers for Afghanistan in this ICC showpiece, but on the crucial day all they could manage was a paltry 12 runs between them.

Skipper Rashid Khan, who could have made some valuable runs, chose to expose all his stumps to Nortje to see the one close to his legs getting cartwheeled across the field.

Leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi (3/6) applied the coupe de grace on Afghanistan batting line with two wickets in one over, jettisoning Karim Jannat and Noor Ahmad.

At this stage, South Africa is well-poised face the winners of the second semifinal between India and England in the title clash.