Afghanistan Crushes South Africa In AFG vs SA 1st ODI

South Africa were overpowered by Afghanistan in the AFG vs SA 1st ODI. Afghanistan’s brilliant all round performance helped them beat SA by a massive 6 wickets margin. 

The Proteas won the toss and chose to bat first. They did know that Afghanistan’s strength was in their bowling department, but they were definitely not aware of what was going to hit them in this match. 

The South African batsmen stepped into the field hoping to spend half the day batting, but their stay was cut short by Afghanistan’s fantastic bowling. 

Farooqi and Ghazanfar shared seven wickets between them to trigger a South Africa collapse.

Afghanistan's opening bowlers, Fazalhaq Farooqi and AM Ghazanfar, stunned South Africa in the powerplay and reduced them to their worst start in ODIs: 36 for 7 after ten overs. 

A comparatively better eighth-wicket partnership between Wiaan Mulder and Bjorn Fortuin helped SA get past the 69-run mark, their lowest ODI total. 

Unfortunately, they were still shot out for the lowest score by a top-ten ranked team against Afghanistan on a slow and dry surface.

South Africa were all out for 106 in 33.3 overs. 

Afghanistan have never failed to chase a score below 130 and although they did find run-scoring easy early on, they were not about to end that record. 

After a shaky start at 38 for 3 in the 14th over, Hashmatullah Shahidi helped stabilize the innings. 

A crucial fifth-wicket partnership of 47 between Azmatullah Omarzai and Gulbadin Naib, made off 48 balls, guided Afghanistan to a commanding victory. They comfortably chased down the target with 24 overs remaining.

England. Pakistan. Sri Lanka. New Zealand. Australia. And now South Africa. That is a list of teams Afghanistan have beaten in white-ball internationals in the last 11 months.

The Afghanistan team even qualified for the Super-8 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 even when strong teams like Pakistan couldn’t. 

Their progress is mind-blowing and that time isn’t far away when Afghanistan will become one of the strongest teams in white-ball cricket.