The line-up for the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2024 is decided. The first semi-final of the tournament is to be played between Afghanistan, the team that surprised everyone and reached there for the first time, and South Africa. This is South Africa's third T20 World Cup semi-final.

Earlier, Pakistan in 2009 and India in 2014 have become obstacles in its way to reach the final. And, now if for the third time another Asian team comes between it and the ticket to the final, then it should not be surprising. This is because Afghanistan will not change its approach under the pressure of the semi-finals. It will defeat South Africa in the same way in which it first brought Australia and then Bangladesh to their knees in the Super-8.

Now you must be thinking about what kind of efforts of the Afghan team are we talking about here. So, it is connected to their batting.

The work done by the Afghanistan openers by spending time on the crease against Australia and Bangladesh became the reason for them reaching the semi-finals. Now, in this unique way, the Afghanistan team is also eager to book a ticket to the finals.

There are openers right… this method of Afghanistan is good!

Now first of all, know what Afghanistan's opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran did against Australia and Bangladesh? Against both these teams, they not only spent time on the wicket but also made a partnership that helped Afghanistan score enough runs on the scoreboard to fight.

Against Australia, the opening pair of Gurbaz and Zadran together added 118 runs for the first wicket. The result was that after 20 overs, 148 runs were added to the scoreboard and Afghanistan won the match by 21 runs. Similarly, against Bangladesh, Gurbaz and Zadran added 59 runs for the first wicket, due to which the team managed to score 115 runs and won the match by 8 runs.

Australia and Bangladesh are gone, now it's South Africa's turn!

After performing brilliantly against Australia and Bangladesh in the Super-8, it is now Afghanistan's turn to repeat the same feat in their first semi-final of the T20 World Cup.

If Afghanistan's openers i.e. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran make a big partnership in the semi-final too, then South Africa can be shown the way out under its pressure.

Why is Afghanistan's opening pair dangerous?

It does not seem difficult for Gurbaz and Zadran to do so because both the batsmen are among the most in-form batsmen of the tournament. Runs are pouring from the bats of both. Both of them are among the top 3 batsmen who have scored the most runs so far in the T20 World Cup 2024.

So far, there have been 4 fifty plus partnerships between them in the tournament, which is a new record in an edition of the T20 World Cup. It is expected that such a game of both of them can make South Africa fail in the race for the final.