RSA VS AFG - 42nd Match, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023

Five convincing wins while batting first, two nervy wins while chasing and two losses while chasing. That's been South Africa's campaign so far. Over to the knockouts and they'll be facing off against the five-time champions - Australia. Can they break the jinx and progress to their first-ever WC final? Afghanistan, on the other hand, will have to settle for the sixth spot. They had just one win in two World Cups combined, but they have won four matches in this edition, with three of them coming against teams that have won the WC once. They came so close to beating the Aussies and fought hard against the Proteas. Shahidi and Co. can keep their heads high as their campaign comes to an end. On that note, it's time to bring the curtains down. Tune in tomorrow for the double-header. Until then, it's goodbye...

Temba Bavuma: My leg is sore, don't know to what extent, it's gonna have to be fine. I had that option of coming off. I wanted to be out there with the guys. Opportunity for me to spend some time out in the middle. That's what I felt was right at that moment. Winning is a habit, we want to take that momentum through. We batted second and to get over the line in that manner, that's going to put a lot of confidence. Fantastic knock by Rassie who took ownership of the innings and guys batted around him. The wicket got better. We'll take the win, take the confidence and the momentum that comes with it. We'd like to be playing here again. We have a big hurdle that we have to get over first that is Australia in Kolkata.

Hashmatullah Shahidi: As a captain I am quite happy with our performance. We fought till the last moment in each and every game. Good learnings for us in the future. Proud of the way our batters performed in this tournament. We were struggling before this tournament. We sat together and talked about the weak point, so at the end, you saw the result how our batsmen did. That's a positive thing, looking forward to the future. Everyone knows that we have good spin department. If we go with the same momentum, we'll be a very good side. We gave a good message to the world in this tournament. We played big teams and we fought till the last moment. Australian game, it was in our hands, but it was shocking for us.

Most overs of spin bowled in a World Cup innings
40 - AFG vs SA, Ahmedabad, 2023
39 - UAE vs NZ, Faisalabad, 1996
39 - ZIM vs AUS, Ahmedabad, 2011

Most overs of spin bowled by a team in a World Cup edition
268.5 - Afghanistan (2023)
251 - India (2011)
233.1 - Sri Lanka (2003)
223.2 - Afghanistan (2019)
New Zealand have bowled 180.2 overs of spin in the ongoing tournament so far, which is the second most after Afghanistan’s 268.5.

Rashid Khan at CWC 2023
1st innings: 2/165 in 40 overs, Avg: 82.50, ER: 4.12
2nd innings: 9/223 in 46.3 overs, Avg: 24.77, ER: 4.79

Mohammad Nabi at CWC 2023
vs RHB: 3 wickets at 56, SR: 80.33, ER: 4.18
vs LHB: 5 wickets at 16.6, SR: 25.6, ER: 3.89

Highest targets successfully chased by SA in World Cups
297 vs India, Nagpur, 2011
271 vs Pakistan, Chennai, 2023
254 vs India, Hove, 1999
245 vs Afghanistan, Ahmedabad, 2023
243 vs Pakistan, Karachi, 1996

Rassie van der Dussen | Player of the Match: We were happy with bowling first, we would have chased anyway. We knew they are a quality bowling attack and we wanted to put ourselves in a difficult situation. There are one or two things we can tweak but happy with how the run-chase went. In any chase, there has to be someone who plays the the anchor role. We had a lovely platform with Quinny and Temba giving us a solid platform and that made it easy for me. Happy to play that role tonight and we got some good partnerships in the middle, happy to get across the finish line. It’s funny when you do something so well and the other part is not so good, people say you are doing that badly. We were on the 50-50 mark in terms of chasing so we wanted to put ourselves in a difficult situation and test ourselves going forward. Going into the semi-final, this is what we wanted to do and it worked out well. We have taken a lot of learning from the last two games. Kolkata was a lot drier and a lot lower. We know what to expect going into the semi-final. Hopefully, if we get back here again, we'll put in a similar performance.

21:51 Local Time, 16:21 GMT, 21:51 IST: A successful run-chase for South Africa; not clinical by any means though. Chasing a modest target, the openers gave them a good start - 57/0 in the first powerplay. Both of them were dismissed in quick succession. Rassie van der Dussen and Markram stitched a fifty partnership and looked quite comfortable. Rashid broke the stand and he also cleaned up the dangerous Klaasen in the same spell. But the other spinners couldn't exert the same amount of pressure. Nabi removed Miller and South Africa still needed 60+ runs. Rassie continued to be calm at one end and Phehlukwayo - after a shaky start against the spinners - hit boundaries for fun against Naveen-ul-Haq to wrap up the proceedings with 15 balls to spare. Earlier in the day, Afghanistan were reduced to 116/6 after opting to bat but 23-year-old Azmatullah Omarzai batted beautifully and ensured that his team posted a respectable total. Unfortunately for Afghanistan, that wasn't sufficient as stroke-making got relatively easier in the second innings. They made South Africa toil hard for the win. Stick around for the presentations...

Naveen-ul-Haq to Phehlukwayo, SIX, 6, 4, 6 and South Africa win by 5 wickets Slower delivery, Phehlukwayo spots it and wallops it over deep backward square leg for a biggie

Naveen-ul-Haq to Phehlukwayo, FOUR, slot ball outside off, Phehlukwayo stays leg-side, crouches to drill it between mid-off and cover. Bullets away to the fence

Just 8 runs needed now...

Naveen-ul-Haq to Phehlukwayo, SIX, fifty partnership! Short and angled in, sits up nicely for Phehlukwayo who slams the pull over deep mid-wicket. Right off the meat of the bat for a 76m six

Equation: 14 runs | 18 balls.

Noor Ahmad to van der Dussen, 2 runs, nudged through mid-wicket off the front foot and van der Dussen collects another brace. 9 runs off the over without taking any risk

Noor Ahmad to Phehlukwayo, 1 run, 94.6kph, shortish ball, Phehlukwayo pulls hard to deep backward square leg

Noor Ahmad to Phehlukwayo, wide, 88.3kph, flighted leggie, too wide outside off, left alone

Noor Ahmad to van der Dussen, 1 run, googly outside off, chopped wide of cover

Noor Ahmad to van der Dussen, 2 runs, 87.3kph, slower and fuller in length, van der Dussen opens his bat-face to ease it through point. Easy two

Noor Ahmad to Phehlukwayo, 1 run, flat and quick from a short of length, probably the wrong 'un, Phehlukwayo rocks back to punch it to long-on