Morris and De Villiers Earn Proteas Vital Victory

Chris Morris restored the dignity of the Proteas pace attack with his first ever four-wicket haul in the shortest format to get South Africa’s ICC World Twenty20 campaign off the ground with a 37-run victory over Afghanistan at Mumbai’s Wankede Stadium on Sunday.

After the Proteas had become the first team in the history of the World T20 tournaments to score back-to-back totals in excess of 200 (229 against England and 209 in this match), Afghanistan threatened to repeat the hatchet job that England had done on South Africa on Friday evening.

The leader of this savage onslaught on Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada (Dale Steyn was left out of the starting line-up) was Mohammad Shahzad who raced to 44 off 19 deliveries with three fours and five sixes as Afghanistan raced to 52 in 4 overs.

It was Morris who took the fight to the underdogs, removing both Shahzad and his captain, Asghar Stanikzai, in the space of three deliveries. It gave him an opening spell of 2/9 in 2 overs and he went on to finish with 4/27 in 4 overs that included 15 dot balls with only 4 boundaries being conceded.

Afghanistan continued to believe and at the halfway stage were right on the mark, scoring 10 runs to the over. Imran Tahir (2/24) also played a big role in pulling the game back but the Proteas have a lot of thinking to do about their bowling line-up and tactics before they face the West Indies in a key match at Nagpur on Friday.

Their batting is the equal of any other team in the competition. They scored over 60 in the power play for the fourth match in a row with Quinton de Kock again setting the pace with 45 off 31 balls (6 fours and 2 sixes).

Morris apart, the main contributor to the Proteas success was AB de Villiers (64 off 29 balls, 4 fours and 5 sixes) who struck a decisive 29 runs in the 17th over. Up to that stage Afghanistan had looked as though they might restrict the Proteas to a reasonable total but De Villiers changed all that with 35 runs off seven balls (he also hit the first ball of the next over for a six).

The Proteas suffered a major blow when JP Duminy left the field with a left hamstring strain early in the Afghanistan innings and it will be a race against time to get him fit for Friday when he will be needed on the dry surface they are likely to encounter. He is also somewhere near to his best batting form.

The Proteas are now second on the log thanks to a superior run rate although Sri Lanka will go past them if they beat group leaders, the West Indies, in this evening’s match.