SA vs AFG World Cup 2023 Match 42: Awards List, Man of The Match, Key Stats, Presentation Ceremony

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SA vs AFG World Cup 2023 Match 42: Rassie van der Dussen (76*) hit an unbeaten fifty after a 64-run stand between Quinton de Kock (41) and Temba Bavuma (23) as South Africa chased down a 245-run target in 47.3 overs to beat Afghanistan by five wickets in their last league match of the World Cup 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday, November 10.

With the win, South Africa now have 14 points after nine league stage matches. They will now face Australia in the second semi-final on Thursday, November 16. Afghanistan, on the other hand, finished sixth in their best ever World Cup campaign.

Earlier, middle-order batter Azmatullah Omarzai hit a gritty unbeaten 97 amid Afghanistan batting collapse to help his team finish at 244 in 50 overs. Afghanistan were once reeling at 116/6 in 27.4 overs.

The South African bowlers dominated the proceedings with Gerald Coetzee grabbing four wickets for 44 runs. Lungi Ngidi (2/69) and spinner Keshav Maharaj (2/25) took two wickets each.

SA vs AFG, World Cup 2023: Full List of Awards

Man of the Match: Rassie van der Dussen (SA) for scoring 76 unbeaten runs off 95 balls.

SA vs AFG, World Cup 2023: Who Said What?

Rassie van der Dussen (Man of the Match): We were happy with bowling first, we would have chased anyway. We knew they are a quality bowling attack and we wanted to put ourselves in a difficult situation. There are one or two things we can tweak but happy with how the run-chase went. In any chase, there has to be someone who plays the the anchor role.

We had a lovely platform with Quinny and Temba giving us a solid platform and that made it easy for me. Happy to play that role tonight and we got some good partnerships in the middle, happy to get across the finish line. It’s funny when you do something so well and the other part is not so good, people say you are doing that badly.

We were on the 50-50 mark in terms of chasing so we wanted to put ourselves in a difficult situation and test ourselves going forward. Going into the semi-final, this is what we wanted to do and it worked out well. We have taken a lot of learning from the last two games. Kolkata was a lot drier and a lot lower. We know what to expect going into the semi-final. Hopefully, if we get back here again, we'll put in a similar performance.

Hashmatullah Shahidi (Afghanistan captain): As a captain I am quite happy with our performance. We fought till the last moment in each and every game. Good learnings for us in the future. Proud of the way our batters performed in this tournament. We were struggling before this tournament.

We sat together and talked about the weak point, so at the end, you saw the result how our batsmen did. That's a positive thing, looking forward to the future. Everyone knows that we have good spin department. If we go with the same momentum, we'll be a very good side.

We gave a good message to the world in this tournament. We played big teams and we fought till the last moment. Australian game, it was in our hands, but it was shocking for us.

Temba Bavuma (South Africa captain): My leg is sore, don't know to what extent, it's gonna have to be fine. I had that option of coming off. I wanted to be out there with the guys. Opportunity for me to spend some time out in the middle. That's what I felt was right at that moment. Winning is a habit, we want to take that momentum through.

We batted second and to get over the line in that manner, that's going to put a lot of confidence. Fantastic knock by Rassie who took ownership of the innings and guys batted around him.

The wicket got better. We'll take the win, take the confidence and the momentum that comes with it. We'd like to be playing here again. We have a big hurdle that we have to get over first that is Australia in Kolkata.

SA vs AFG Key Stats

• 40: Afghanistan bowled 40 overs of spin. It's the most by any team in the World Cup history
• 268.5: Afghanistan bowled 268.5 overs of spin in World Cup 2023. It's the most by any team in the World Cup history