Afghanistan created history by reaching the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2024, but their batsmen did not perform as they should have in this match. In the first semi-final of the tournament against South Africa, a total surrender of their top order batsmen was seen. The game of Afghanistan's top batsmen ended in just 39 balls in front of the fiery balls of the trio of Jansen, Rabada and Norkhia.

In the match, Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bat first. The thinking behind this decision of captain Rashid Khan might have been that he had won the last two matches against Australia and Bangladesh by batting first. But he might have forgotten that in the last 3 matches played in Trinidad, the team that has chased the runs has won.

Janson breaks Afghanistan's opening pair

In-form Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran started the innings for Afghanistan. This opening pair had made 4 fifty plus partnerships in the T20 World Cup 2024, so there were a lot of expectations from them. But, this hope of Afghanistan was shattered by South African pacer Marco Jansen in the very first over by dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz. The tournament's top scorer Gurbaz could not even open his account in the semi-finals and returned to the dugout.