Sharjah: Afghanistan and South Africa played a 3-match ODI series in the United Arab Emirates. Took an early lead, and Afghanistan won the first match of the series. Through it, Afghanistan also created a new record for the first time in international cricket by winning against South Africa.
The Afghanistan team did not stop there and won the 2nd match by a margin of 177 runs. With it, Afghanistan registered their biggest-ever win in terms of runs in ODI cricket and set a new record. Between the two nations, Afghanistan has a chance to sweep the first series. On the other hand, the Proteas will be playing this match for their pride. On Sunday, September 22, Afghanistan and South Africa continued their ongoing ODI series with the final or third match at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
In this match, the toss was won by Afghanistan and the team decided to bat. After this, Afghanistan won the toss and declared to bat first. After that, the opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz played so calmly and aggressively for the team. But on the other side, the main batsmen like Abdul Malik 9(19), Rahmat Shah 1(6), Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi 10(17), Azmatullah Omarzai 2(4), Ikram Alikhil 4(9) and Mohammad Nabi 5(13) got out in single digit runs and caused a setback.
However, on the other hand, Rahmanullah Gurbaz fought as hard as possible and was dismissed for 89(94) runs with 7 fours and 4 sixes. In the same over, Nangeyalia Kharote lost his wicket without scoring runs. After that, Fareed Ahmad 4(20) and Naveed Zadran 1(4) got out in a single digit. But on the other side, Ghazanfar provided some resistance toward the end, managing to push Afghanistan to a somewhat respectable total due to an unbeaten knock of 31(15) runs with 2 fours and 3 sixes.
In the end, South Africa bowled out Afghanistan for 169 runs in 34 overs. Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Nqaba Peter took 2 wickets each and Bjorn Fortuin took 1 wicket. Chasing 170 runs, Captain Temba Bavuma 22(28), Tony de Zorzi 26(31), Reeza Hendricks 18(31) gave disappointment to South Africa by losing their wickets. So Aiden Markram scored a half-century and scored 69* (67) runs with 4 fours and 3 sixes in the middle order for the team that stumbled at 80-3. Tristan Stubbs scored 26*(42) runs with him as South Africa scored 170-3 in 33 overs to win by 7 wickets.
Fareed Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammad Nabi took one wicket each. So South Africa won a consolation to avoid a whitewash after a humiliating defeat. But after winning the first two matches, Afghanistan won the ODI series against South Africa 2-1 (3) for the first time in international cricket and also created a new history by winning a series for the first time in their career against a team ranked in the top 5 of the ICC rankings.
