Wilting Proteas suffer another embarrassing defeat against Afghanistan

The Proteas endured another painful experience in sauna-like conditions in Sharjah on Friday, crashing to a second defeat against Afghanistan and a fifth in their last six ODIs. 

One of those losses was the World Cup semifinal, but the rest have all been with South Africa testing combinations and personnel. 

It’s important to note that South African cricket in the shape of the national coach and the director of cricket wanted this extra cricket because they believed it was needed to grow a wider pool of players. 

So as this latest result — a 177-run loss — is absorbed, it is worth remembering, that amid all of this current calamity, there is a goal. 

But it still doesn’t make what is happening with the Proteas men's teams in bilateral T20 and ODI series acceptable.

Afghanistan has played the more progressive, intuitive and thoughtful cricket, claiming a historic and thoroughly deserved series victory. Friday saw another vintage display, this time driven by the batting exploits of Ramanullah Gurbaz, who made a sixth ODI 100 and Azmatullah Omarzai, who topped off the innings with a flamboyant 86 not out off only 50 balls. 

Then their spinners, led by birthday boy Rashid Khan, bamboozled the South African batters, again bowling them out well within the allotted 50 overs. Rashid, finished with 5/19 playing the central role with the ball. It was another dismal batting effort from the Proteas who were dismissed for 134.

The openers had started the pursuit of 312 relatively comfortably. Skipper Temba Bavuma, restored to the starting team after missing the first match with illness, and Tony de Zorzi saw off the threat of off-spinner Allah Ghazanfar, who had wrought so much damage on Wednesday.

De Zorzi, once he’d figured out that playing Ghazanfar off the back foot was not the right option, struck a four and two sixes on his way to 31 off 44 balls, while Bavuma, who played a beautiful lofted straight drive for six off Ghazanfar, scored 38 off 44 balls. 

Their first wicket stand was worth 73, but one of them needed to bat the majority of the innings if South Africa were to conclude a successful chase. Instead they were dismissed within four overs of each other, and then an ugly collapse ensued, as Rashid spun a web around the rest of the batting line-up. 

Again Reeza Hendricks batted poorly and his future must surely be in jeopardy. He made 17, with a strike rate of 50.00 and was clueless against Rashid, before eventually being bowled by the left-arm spinner Nangeyalia Kharote, who picked up 4/26.

Tristan Stubbs was unlucky to be given out caught, with the TV umpire fretting for an age and then deciding that there was sufficient evidence that the ball had touched the glove. There wasn’t.

But that shouldn’t take the gloss off Afghanistan’s fine performance. 

Gurbaz was outstanding, taking advantage of conditions early in the afternoon, where the South African bowlers were unable to make any kind of impression, regardless of what they bowled. There were also too many short balls, which on a lifeless pitch, just sat up for Gurbaz to pull comfortably. 

Against the spinners he was happy to drive, notching up 10 fours and three sixes in his innings of 105, which came off 110 balls. He shared a 101-run partnership for the second wicket with Rahmat Shah who made 50.

Once Gurbaz was out, Omarzai took over, delighting in lofting the South African spinners, including debutant Nqaba Peter over the offside boundary. 

Peter didn’t bowl badly, but in just his seventh One-Day game, since first playing in the format less than a year ago, his lack of variety made him too predictable.

His dismissal of Shah, with a googly, which gave Kyle Verreynne a stumping, was one of the few highlights on a dreary day for the Proteas. 

The final ODI is on Sunday.