Afghanistan make history, beat South Africa in 2nd ODI to win three-match series

A superb fivewicket haul by spinner Rashid Khan helped Afghanistan make history on Friday by registering their first ODI series triumph against South Africa with a sensational 177run victory in the second match of the threematch series here The 177run victory is Afghanistans biggest victory by runs in ODI bettering the previous best of 154run win against ZimbabweAfghanistan had won the first match by six wickets on Wednesday and Fridays victory gave them an unassailable 20 lead in the threematch series and a memorable series win over another Testplaying nationThe moment he brought up his 7th ODI hundred RGurbaz_21 AfghanAtalan AFGvSA GloriousNationVictoriousTeam pictwittercomS7e98ilU6Vmdash Afghanistan Cricket Board ACBofficials September 20 2024Electing to bat first Afghanistan rode on a blazing century by opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz and halfcenturies by Rahmat Shah 50 and Azmatullah Omarzai 86 not out to post a challenging total of 3114 in 50 oversIn reply South Africa failed to capitalise on a 73run opening partnership suffering a middle and lower order collapse and was bundled out for 134 in 342 overs to suffer a massive defeat with around 15 overs to spare Rashid Khan ended with figures of 91195 while Nangeyalia Kharote bagged 519 runs as Afghanistan scored a massive victoryAlso ReadPacer Taskin disappointed with Bangladeshrsquos toporder collapseAfter skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi opted to bat first Gurbaz scored his seventh hundred in ODIs breaking Ahmad Shahzads record for most centuries by an Afghanistan batterHe raised an 88run partnership with fellow opener Riaz Hassan 29 for the first wicket completing his halfcentury in 56 balls And then added 101run for the second wicket with Rahman who scored a 66ball 50 hitting two boundaries in the processGurbaz reached the milestone off 107 balls hammering 10 boundaries and three maximums in the process He survived a DRS referral on his way to a score of 105 off 110 balls before he was cleaned up by Nandre Burget with a length ball bowled from round the wicket that nipped back and struck the top of the stumps as Gurbaz swung and missedAzmatullah Omarzai then took over the responsibility of scoring runs for Afghanistan as he blasted an unbeaten 86 off 50 balls hitting five boundaries and six massive sixes that propped up the Afghanistan scoring and helped them reach a big totalChasing a target of 312 South Africa were off to a good start with skipper Temba Bavuma and Tony de Zorzi taking them to 73 runs in 14 overs Bavuma scored 38 off 47 deliveries hitting four boundaries and one sixTony de Zorzi contributed 31 runs off 44 balls and after Reeza Hendriks 17 and Aiden Markram 21 helped South Africa reach 1034 in the 24th over when Cristan Stubbs was out for five They lost their way from that good position with seasoned spinner Rashid Khan and leftarm spinner with figures 62 resulting in the semicautious stageBrief scoresAfghanistan 3114 in 50 overs Rahmanullah Gurbaz 105 Rahmat Shah 50 Azmatullah Omarzai 86 not out Aiden Markram 120 beat South Africa 134 all out in 342 overs Temba Bavuma 38 Tony de Zorzi 31 Rashid Khan 519 Nangeyalia Kharote 426 by 177 runsWith agency inputs