🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026:M13: AFG vs SA, Ahmedabad 🏏 - Page 11

Afghanistan now have an uphill battle to make the Super 8s from here on. They not only have to win their remaining two games big, but have to hope other result go their way. Not the best position to be in.

The main game summary: Heartbreak for Afghanistan. They'll look back at 19.4 in the main game and think about the margins. Could Noor have taken the single, tied the scores and trusted Farooqi to complete the win in normal time? Farooqi would be thinking if he could only run that little bit faster and avoid getting run-out? The margins were close and AFG could well be repenting for the rest of the tournament. Is their 2026 T20 WC over? They now need to beat the remaining two teams convincingly and then hope that the loser of the NZ-SA game trip up against either Canada/UAE. But that's for later. Let's come back to this match. South Africa batted first a few hours ago - Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickleton - added 114 for the second wicket before Afghanistan started to fightback. Dewald Brevis struggled, so did David Miller and Tristan Stubbs fell cheaply. But all three wouldn't have imagined that they'd have to play such a big role a few hours later. We'll speak about the super over (make it two) later. It meant that Afghanistan had done well to restrict South Africa to 187.

Then began the Rahmanullah Gurbaz show - the right-hander was batting on a very different surface as he found the boundaries with regular fashion. The 50 was brought up in 4 overs. It was then followed by a mini-collapse as 51 for 0 to 52 for 3 in no time. Gurbaz though kept going and in Darwish Rasooli, he had a partner to support. South Africa though kept chipping away, dismissed both in the 13th over. Contributions from Azmatullah Omarzai and Rashid Khan took them closer, but when the 20th over began, they'd slipped to 175/9.

Lungi Ngidi | Player of the Match: I've lost so much weight today. Never been that stressed in my life in a cricket game. Happy to come out on the winning side. I knew I was probably going to be the option (for the Super Over). Captain said to keep doing the same. Did the same with the slower balls but didn't come off in the Super Over. With the way they were going I knew they were going to keep attacking us (in the powerplay), brought the slower ball into play. Message (from SA batters) was that the slower balls into the wicket was gripping. Captain said it was going to be a scrap but I didn't know it was going to be that much of a scrap. Big part of T20 cricket (catching). Have seen in a couple of earlier games that dropped catches can cost the game.

Rashid Khan | Afghanistan captain: The boys did an amazing job, especially with the way they started with the bat. To restrict them under 190 was amazing. So so unlucky to be part of losing team. Gave everything on the ground. This wicket is good, played a lot in IPL on this wicket. Discussion with the team was "yes they had a good start but try to restrict them in last 10 overs". Amazing innings, that's what he's famous for. In the last couple of overs in the powerplay where we lost quick wickets put him on the back foot. Overall he played amazing. We had our opportunities. In the last Super Over as well, 1 ball 5 runs could go anyway. Could've been smarter. One dive, one ball could've finished it. Work hard for the last one and a half years for this game to go to the next round. Very disappointing. Any time you're representing your country is a proud moment. Will try my best to keep them as up as possible.

Aiden Markram | South African captain: It's quite hard to sum that all up. Tough competition - teams put you under immense pressure. And when you start putting yourselves under pressure, life gets hard. Grateful for the win and the points. Ultimately in Super Overs you're picking your most confident guys. Lungi didn't miss by much in the first over but they still got a good score. Same story with Kesh. Tough being a spinner. Still backed him. I said to the boys it's a decent target but we're going to scrap. Wasn't 100 percent comfortable with it, thought we left a few out there. There's areas we can improve. Small little phases, and it adds up to a lot in this format. That is the positive you take from a game like this, you need to win games like this. Important to get a really good start in this format and that's exactly what they did for us. Two of them batted really nicely, taking the game on.

feeling rather bad for Afghanistan right now… they were almost about to win it and then it was too close, too far.

How do these players do it? Even to just watch a game like this is such nerve-wracking stuff, how do they execute those skills under pressure? Imagine how Afghanistan must be feeling to come out on the losing side after a game like that. So many moments they'll look back on and ponder over the what-ifs. They needed 2 off 3 balls in the main game with a free hit to come. Then in the Super Over the equation to defend was 7 runs off 1 ball. How did it slip away? It's games like these where heroes are made. South Africa found theirs in Tristan Stubbs and David Miller, but don't forget about Rahmanullah Gurbaz. What a knock he played and what a part Afghanistan played to conjure up one of the greatest T20Is of all time. Unfortunately it may not be enough to keep them in this World Cup for the Super Eights. A game for which they prepared for one and a half years, and to lose it in such crushing fashion. Heartbreaking stuff. But that's how it is. The action rolls on and the coverage shifts to the game between Australia and Ireland in Colombo.

I went out and missed all the excitement.

It took 2 super overs to decided the result! Unbelievable.

Congratulations to South Africa for winning the match.

Congratulations to Lungi Ngidi for winning (again) the player of the match award.

Cheers..

Aah man feeling so so bad for AFG. Super over mein haargaye dammit