Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored a brilliant century before leg-spin magician Rashid Khan celebrated his 26th birthday by grabbing five wickets as Afghanistan hammered South Africa by 177 runs in the second one-day international.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored a magnificent century, and leg-spin maestro Rashid Khan took five wickets as Afghanistan smashed South Africa by 177 runs in the second ODI on Friday. Gurbaz scored 105 as Afghanistan reached 311-4 before the Proteas lost nine wickets for 61 runs in the 35th over, being bowled out for 134. It was Gurbaz’s sixth century in ODIs, with 10 fours and three sixes.
Man-of-the-match Rashid, who took 5-19, said, “I tried my best to stay on the ground and do my best for the team. I had a hamstring injury.”
“It was a great opportunity for us to win the series against a big team, so I had to stay till the end.”
Afghanistan made a good start as the openers took advantage of winning the toss, two days after winning the first ODI by six wickets.
Before Aiden Markram got Hassan leg before for 29, Gurbaz and Riaz Hassan put up 88 runs for the first wicket.
This brought in Rahmat Shah (50), who partnered with Gurbaz for 101 runs until the opener fell short of his century, dismissed for 105 by Nandre Burger.
After being dismissed, the innings slowed down, but Azmatullah Omarzai quickly picked up the pace, hitting six sixes in an unbeaten fifty-ball 86 to guarantee the Proteas an awkward chase.
South Africa’s openers, Tony de Zorzi (31) and captain Temba Bavuma (38), shared a 73-run partnership for the first wicket in response.
Nevertheless, the Proteas broke apart when they left.
New off-spinner Nangeyalia Kharote, who has only played three ODIs, provided excellent support for leg-spin sensation Rashid, who took 5-19 from nine overs. Kharote had statistics of 4-26.
“I think the job for openers is to lay the foundation but wickets started falling and we came unstuck against spin,” stated Bavuma.”The performance just wasn’t good enough. There is a discussion we should have about why we were unable to take ten wickets. Clinically, they were much superior to us.”
Rashid now has 190 wickets in the format overall with his recent tally.
After dismissing Kyle Verreynne (two), Wiaan Mulder (two), and Tristan Stubbs (five), he only added eight runs in the next over. These were the middle-order dangermen.
On Sunday, in the third and final match of the series, Afghanistan will try to complete a rout in Sharjah.
