Afghanistan lost thrice in the same match, got 3 chances to win on the last ball from South Africa, lost all of them

After a long time, we saw a match in which even though India was not involved, the match happened so that people watched it whether they wanted to or not. The match between South Africa and Afghanistan took place today at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. If you would have watched the match on TV, you would have seen empty chairs in the stadium, but the match being played here was enough to make anyone’s heartbeat go up and down.

Here Afghanistan got three chances to win the match, all three on the last ball. The first chance was on the last ball of the 20 over match, the second chance was on the last ball of the first super over and the third chance was on the last ball of the second super over. Overall, all three balls went in South Africa’s favor and they won the match.

Playing first, the South African team scored 187 runs. When Afghanistan came out to chase, Noor Ahmed and Fazal Farooqui were batting on their behalf. This was Afghanistan’s last pair, the duo had to score 13 runs together. Noor Ahmed had strike and Kagiso Rabada was bowling. Noor Ahmed was caught out on the very first ball, but it turned out to be a no ball, after which he bowled a wide and dot ball.

Noor hit a six on the next ball. The third ball went dot, Noor tried to take a run, but both returned to their respective ends. Noor also played the fourth ball on which he took two runs and this also turned out to be a no ball. The next was a free hit on which only run out could happen. As soon as Noor played the shot, he made up his mind to take two runs, whereas Fazal Farooqui could not even take the start, there was a call of 2 runs, the second run remained incomplete by a distance of just 1 inch. Fazal’s bat remained in the air and he was declared out. This was the first occasion where Afghanistan could win.

Afghanistan were called to bat first. Gurbaz and Azmat Omarzai came to the crease. Ajmat hit amazing shots, 4 on the first ball, six on the second, after that he took a single-winger and hit a four on the fifth. Overall 17 runs were scored, South Africa needed 18 runs to win. The pair of Brewis and Miller came out to chase. Farooqui caught the ball, Brevis hit a six on the second ball and was out on the third. Now came Stubbs, who hit a four as soon as he arrived.

The fifth ball turned out to be a dot and on the sixth ball, Africa had to score 7 runs to win, which was not possible in any way. All Africa could do was to level the score by hitting a six, so that the next super over would happen and all Afghanistan had to do was to bowl the right ball, save the sixer, even if it would have gone for a four, but Afghanistan missed this last ball too and Fazal bowled a full toss. Stubbs hit a sky-high six and the score became equal. Here too Afghanistan lost the chance to win.

South Africa’s batsmen were padded, they got the batting first. Ajmat got the ball. Stubbs started the over by hitting a powerful six on the very first ball and hit it so much that Afghanistan was given the target of 24 runs. This time South Africa brought spinner Keshav Maharaj, Gurbaz and Navi came from here, the first ball was a dot and Navi was out on the second. Here the score of 24 runs i.e. 4 consecutive sixes, Gurbaz had the strike. Gurbaz hit three consecutive sixes.