Sharjah: Fazalhaq Farooqi and 18-year-old sensation Allah Mohammad Ghzanfar starred as Afghanistan beat South Africa for the first time in any format in international cricket.
Having won the toss on Wednesday night, South Africa opted to bat first only to be jolted by Farooqi’s early strikes. The left-arm pacer came around the wicket to account for Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram early on.
He added the wicket of Tony de Zorzi before Ghazanfar worked his magic on the middle-order, dismissing Tristan Stubbs and debutant Jason Smith for ducks in the same over.
South Africa, reduced to 29/5, soon crumbled to 36/7 as Ghazanfar snared the wicket of Kyle Verreynne and Andile Phehlukwayo succumbed to a run out.
A fighting half-century from Wiaan Mulder, helped with a handy knock from Bjorn Fortuin, took South Africa to triple figures, but with just 106 on the board, they faced a stiff ask to keep Afghanistan away from a win, an ICC report said.
Despite a good start with the ball, Azmatullah Omarzai and Gulbadin Naib’s unbeaten fifth-wicket stand guided Afghanistan to a historic triumph.
This is Afghanistan’s first win in six matches across formats against the Proteas. Recently, they had been bowled out for 56 against South Africa in the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
With this win, Afghanistan now have registered victories against all teams but India and Nepal (only one match played) in at least one of the formats.
Brief score: South Africa 106 , Afghanistan 107/4
