Group D was not called the group of death just like that. On Wednesday, South Africa just about managed to survive the Afghanistan challenge in a T20 World Cup match that went into two Super Overs in Ahmedabad.
South Africa had almost won the game in regulation time as Afghanistan needed 13 runs off the nlast six balls with just a wicket in hand. However, pacer Kagiso Rabada bowled two no-balls and a running error on part of the Afghans took the game into the Super Over.
South Africa were then done and dusted but Tristan Stubbs hit a last-ball six to force a second Super Over. This one left Afghanistan needing four sixes off four balls; Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who scored 84 off 42 in regulation time, hit three of them, needed just a four to take it to the third Super Over after Keshav Maharaj bowled a wide, but hit straight to point to the relief of the South Africans.
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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 need more than wins against UAE and Canada to make it out of the first round.
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.
In the second Super Over, 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, 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.
It was Quinton de Kock who broke the shackles after a start of 12 for 1 in four overs. Whatever de Kock did, though, Ryan 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.
Taken down for 21 runs in his first two overs, captain Rashid Khan started the comeback for Afghanistan with the wickets of Rickelton and de Kock in the same over to reach 699 T20 wickets. The duo added 114 in 10.1 overs to take South Africa to 126 in the 13th over, but now began a new game. Afghanistan offered batters little pace, and only a couple of big blows from Jansen in the end took them to 187. That was just 63 runs off the last 7.3 overs.
A gentle full toss from Lungi Ngidi was what got Gurbaz going. He then took 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.
Brief scores: South Africa 187/6 (Quinton de Kock 59, Ryan Rickelton 61, Dewald Brevis 23, David Miller 20 not out; Azmatullah Omarzai 3/41, Rashid Khan 2/28) tied Afghanistan 187 in 19.4 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 84, Azmatullah Omarzai 22, Rashid Khan 20; Lungi Ngidi 3/29). Super Over 1: Afghanistan 17/0 tied South Africa 17/1. Super Over 2: South Africa 23/0 (David Miller 16 not out) beat Afghanistan 19/2 (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 18).
