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Proteas batters bamboozled by Afghanistan’s Farooqi, Ghazanfar

All-rounder Wiaan Mulder was a lone warrior with the bat for the Proteas against Afghanistan. Photo: AFP

All-rounder Wiaan Mulder was a lone warrior with the bat for the Proteas against Afghanistan. Photo: AFP

Published Sep 18, 2024

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Ahead of the first bilateral ODI series against Afghanistan, the hope was to discover other players to win cricket games for South Africa.

Everyone outside of Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortjé and Tabraiz Shamsi.

On the evidence of Wednesday night’s humiliating first defeat to Afghanistan, the road ahead to unearth this next crop of Proteas match winners seems a long one as they went down by six wickets.

While the hot and humid conditions and a low and slow pitch at the Sharjah International Stadium were tailor-made for the Afghans, there is simply no excuse for the Proteas to be bowled out for just 106 in 33.3 overs.

Even more so to be reduced to a dismal 37-7 at the end of the first 10-over power play, with only Wiaan Mulder’s career-best 52 from 84 balls, which included five fours and one six, ensuring the Proteas passed their all-time ODI low of 69 made against Australia in Sydney in 1993.

When playing against Afghanistan, the expectation is to come up against mystery spin. Preparations would have been made both in the nets and behind the laptop.

But being confronted out in the middle by a ball that is fizzing out of the hand in both directions is an altogether different task.

And so it proved, with Afghanistan unleashing their latest weapon, Allah Mohammed Ghazanfar, in all his fury on Wednesday night.

The lanky 18-year-old off-spinner was first spotted in South Africa earlier this year when he utterly bamboozled the Junior Proteas in a triangular series leading up to the ICC Under-19 World Cup.

Now on the global international circuit, Ghazanfar was equally effective against the senior Proteas, who simply had no way of reading the teenager out of the hand or off the pitch.

Through subtle variations both in flight and speed through the air, Ghazanfar had Tristan Stubbs (0) caught at slip, clean-bowled debutant Jason Smith for another duck, before trapping Kyle Verreynne for 10.

Ghazanfar bowled his full 10 overs without a break to finish with the remarkable analysis of 10-2-20-3.

While Ghazanfar’s spell of destruction was mystifying to watch, the early damage had been done by left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Fresh from topping the wicket-takers’ charts at the ICC T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean, Farooqi had the new white ball on a string as he hit just the right lengths to force both Reeza Hendricks and stand-in captain Aiden Markram to chop on, before Tony de Zorzi holed out to a misjudged pull shot.

And it was Farooqi that ultimately ended Mulder’s brave resistance with another delivery that crashed into the off-stump to finish with figures of 4-35.

With T20 superstar Rashid Khan also chipping in with 2-30, the Afghans could leave the field at the interval confident that they were on the verge of a historic victory over the Proteas.

This they duly achieved with comfort and ease as the hosts cruised past the Proteas’ total with six wickets and just under half the innings’ overs to spare.

There were some flutters early on, with Lungi Ngidi sending down a fine new-bell spell that included Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s wicket in the first over of the run chase, while left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin also kept the visitors interested with a crafty spell of 2-22 from his nine overs.

But ultimately, the Proteas’ batters had simply not given their team a chance on the night.

Azmatullah Omarzai (25 not out) and Gulbadin Naib (34 not out) ensured there were no further alarms as they combined for an unbroken 47-run partnership for the fifth wicket to record a famous win that will undoubtedly be celebrated with much fanfare back home in Kabul.

The next ODI will take place on Friday at the same venue (2pm start, SA time).

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