Kagiso Rabada bowls to Azmatullah Omarzai with just three balls left in the innings. Azmat is batting on 97. The crowd is ready with their phones out to shoot a rare Afghan century.
But Rabada doesn’t want that to happen. He bowls a toe crusher and Azmat fails to score any run.
Rabada next bowls a short delivery which again bears no fruit for Azmat. The last delivery is again a yorker and Azmat can only play it back to Rabada. Naveen-ul-Haq, who is at the non-striker’s end starts running but the bowler clips off the bails.
Azmat is stranded on 97*.
He bends down in disappointment at the crease before walking off to the dressing room. On the way back though, he doesn’t forget to acknowledge the applause from the fans gathered at the Narendra Modi Stadium for Afghanistan’s clash against South Africa in ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
Follow all the action from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 including the World Cup schedule, World Cup 2023 results, and ICC Cricket World Cup points table. Players are vying to top the World Cup 2023 Most Runs and World Cup 2023 Most Wickets charts.
Considering where Afghanistan were at one stage – 116/6 in 27.4 overs – Azmat expectedly was mindful of making sure to not take any undue risks as he made a steady progress. However, with the end of innings approaching, he creamed Lungi Ngidi for 20 runs in the 47th over and then took 15 off the 49th over that he bowled.
But he couldn’t score any runs of Rabada who bowled two very tight overs, conceding only five runs to bring an end to Afghanistan’s innings.
Amidst the wickets falling regularly at the other end, it was Omarzai who kept the Afghan hopes high and carried their batting deep.
On a day when no Afghan batter crossed 26, Azmat missed out on a well-deserved century by just three runs but it was thanks to Rabada’s brilliance.
Afghan batters, meanwhile, looked to have lost the lustre they have generally displayed in the tournament.
The 281-run chase against Pakistan. 280+ score against Australia and England. And the only team besides New Zealand to post more than 270 against India. This was the same batting line up but failed to gain any momentum until the very end.
Right from the last two overs of powerplay, Afghanistan batters managed to choke at regular intervals.
Keshav Maharaj was brought into attack in the ninth over. He started with a good length delivery that drifted away from Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Afghanistan’s star opener was drawn on the front foot and his push resulted in an outside edge that went to the right of Heinrich Klassen at slip. Afghanistan had lost their first wicket and Maharaj had announced his arrival.
He continued with five dot balls to Rahmat Shah and started with a wicket-maiden.
Gerald Coetzee, up to bowl the next over, ended the powerplay with another wicket-maiden and completely shifted the momentum in Proteas’ favour. Two back-to-back wicket-maidens at the end of powerplay and Afghans who were a solid 41/0 in eight overs, were kept to 41/2.
South Africa now had 21 – the most wickets in powerplay so far in the tournament.
After the powerplay, Maharaj bowled 30 deliveries of the next 10 overs. Twenty of those were dots. He also dismissed skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi cheaply for two runs. South Africa had kept Afghanistan quiet with just 37 runs in the 10 overs.
Afghanistan managed to cross 100 only in 26th over and had also lost four wickets by then.
While Maharaj kept one end tight, Coetzee and Ngidi continued to create damage from the other end. Every time a wicket went down, SUPER SAFAS flag started to unfurl.
The Proteas hunted in pack as Coetzee bagged four wickets while Ngidi and Mahraj picked two wickets each.
However, while it seemed that Afghanistan will bundle out much sooner, Azmat ensured they play their full quota of 50 overs.
Azmat became the sixth overall and only the second in 2023 World Cup after madman Glenn Maxwell to score more than 350 runs, batting at number 5 or below. The right-hander also became the second highest scorer for Afghanistan in ODIs after Ibrahim Zadran’s century against Aussies.
Afghanistan’s spin twins – local boy Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed – ably supported Azmat after a heap of wickets at the other end. While Rashid only supported playing out number of balls, Ahmed also scored some valuable runs.
Afghanistan ended their innings on 244 and while they are officially out of the semi-final race requiring a much bigger margin to qualify, they might want to go back with their heads held high just like 23-year-old Azmat who refused to bend the knee with a valiant knock.
South Africa will come out for chase with caution, considering the manner in which they have batted in the second innings this competition. And though David Miller, on the eve of the match, said that they can chase any target, it will be worthwhile to see if that actually comes true.
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