The Afghanistan fairy tale in the World Cup came to a harsh end. South Africa denied them the slim chance of qualifying for the semi-finals with a five-wicket win in Ahmedabad. The underdogs fought hard as they had during this campaign and unearthed a new hero in Azmatullah Omarzai, but their cumulative effort was not enough.
They did not bat as well as they would have expected to and stopped well short of a total that could have challenged this powerful South African batting line-up. There was no dearth of passion or energy, but you need more than that. It was a great lesson for Afghanistan nonetheless and perhaps, also a lesson for the other teams.
The lesson for Afghanistan was they cannot be on cloud nine all the time. These are tough games which demand application and focus all the time. They showed it for quite some time in this World Cup, but could not sustain it. The catching malfunction against a cornered Australia was the biggest example. Then, there were application errors in batting against South Africa.
The lesson for other teams was that Afghanistan can never, ever be taken lightly, unless they go the West Indies way. There is enviable variety in spin bowling. They also have a couple of decent fast bowlers. There is a lot of depth in this set-up. They have aggressors and builders in batting. It’s not only about early-innings cameos.
It’s batting, however, that let Afghanistan down in this game. Some of them got starts and failed to carry on against a disciplined South African attack led by Keshav Maharaj, although Gerald Coetzee returned the match’s best figures of four for 44. This was a match where they had to dig deep and Afghanistan failed to do it despite Omarzai’s unbeaten 97. The total of 244 was well short.
That is where the match was decided. Kagiso Rabada bowled a miserly last over and kept Omarzai from becoming Afghanistan’s second World Cup centurion. That over produced a mere three runs. The last three were dot balls. It can’t be said that this over determined the fate of the match, but it was huge if one looks at the chase which got tense towards the end.
South Africa appeared to be heading home safely before those wickets in the middle overs brought Afghanistan back. It took responsible knocks from Rassie van der Dussen (76 not out) and Andile Phehlukwayo (37 not out) to steer the team out of potential trouble during that sixth-wicket partnership. One more wicket, and who knows what would have happened!
Van der Dussen’s innings was eventually the difference between the teams. Here was a player known for playing breezy knocks who changed his game to suit the requirement of the hour. That was what Afghanistan lacked. Other than Omarzai, nobody stuck around for long enough. That was the lesson for Afghanistan, who otherwise lit up this World Cup with a brave run. They lost but won hearts.