Afghanistan left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi made history on Thursday, becoming the bowler with most wickets taken in a single edition of ICC T20 World Cup. Farooqi reached this milestone during his side’s semifinal match against South Africa at Tarouba in Trinidad. During the game, Farooqi took the wicket of wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock and ended with figures of 1/11 in two overs. Now in the ongoing tournament, Farooqi has taken 17 wickets in eight games at an average of 9.41 and an economy rate of 6.31, with the best bowling figures of 5/9. He is the leading wicket-taker in the competition as of now.
Previously, the record for most wickets in a single T20 WC was held by Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga, who got 16 scalps in the 2021 edition held at UAE. At the third place are Sri Lanka’s mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis (15 in 2012 T20 WC0), Hasaranga again (15 in T20 WC 2022) and young Indian left-armer Arshdeep Singh (15 in T20 WC 2024).
In the match, Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat first. However, pacers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen made the Asian side regret their decision, reducing them to 28/6. Though Karim Janat (8) and skipper Rashid Khan (8) tried to launch a counterattack with some boundaries, Proteas folded Afghanistan for just 56 runs in 11.5 overs.
Tabraiz Shamsi (3/6) and Marco Jansen (3/16) were the top bowlers for Proteas. Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje also took two wickets each.
In the run-chase, Proteas lost de Kock early. However, Reeza Hendricks (29* in 25 balls, with three fours and a six) and skipper Aiden Markram (23* in 21 balls, with four boundaries) took SA to the winning score in 8.5 overs.
With this win, Proteas overcame a winless streak in seven World Cup semifinals across both ODIs and T20Is formats and reached their first-ever final. Afghanistan’s inspirational and dreamy run ends in semifinal.
Jansen was given the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
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