SA cut to the chase

AHMEDABAD, November 10

South Africa saw off a spirited fightback from Afghanistan to win by five wickets with 15 balls to spare in their final World Cup group game and consolidate second place in the standings.

South Africa have 14 points from their nine games, two points ahead of Australia who play Bangladesh tomorrow while Afghanistan are sixth.

Both South Africa and Australia have already qualified for the semifinals, with the two teams set to play each other in Kolkata on Thursday.

“They say winning is a habit so we want to take that momentum through, we take a lot of confidence,” South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma said. “We did something differently today, we normally bat first but we batted second. To get over the line in that manner will give us confidence. We’d like to be playing here again (in the final) in front of a full capacity crowd. But there’s a hurdle we have to get over first against Australia in Kolkata.”

Afghanistan opted to bat first but they failed to build partnerships as South Africa picked up wickets regularly.

The Asian side posted 244 on the back of Azmatullah Omarzai’s unbeaten knock of 97, which included seven boundaries and three sixes.

Gerald Coetzee was the pick of the South African bowlers with figures of 4/44 while Quinton de Kock finished with six catches to tie the record for most wicketkeeping dismissals in a World Cup match. In response, de Kock set up the chase with a breezy 41 that took him to the top of scoring charts on 591 runs. — Reuters

6 Catches for Quinton de Kock, the third keeper to take six catches in a men’s WC match, after Adam Gilchrist and Sarfaraz Ahmed

18 Gerald Coetzee’s wicket-tally, the most for a South Africa fast bowler in a single edition of a World Cup