Afghanistan ended up on the losing side after two Super Overs against South Africa at the 2026 T20 World Cup. Here are five moments where the game got away from them.
An incredible, seesaw game in Ahmedabad required two Super Overs to separate the sides in the first of three fixtures on Wednesday (February 11). Both teams made missteps, and Afghanistan in particular may rue a few moments throughout the 44 eventual overs that took place.
Match 13, South Africa vs Afghanistan
vs
- Ball by ball Over
Rashid not bowling
Afghanistan played only two quicks in this game, Fazalhaq Farooqi and all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai. Farooqi had the potential advantage of being a left-armer, and was good in "regulation time", conceding at eight an over in a 187 vs 187 game. Omarzai, meanwhile conceded 41 in his four overs.
Farooqi bowled the first Super Over, but after the game went into a second, one felt Afghanistan could have backed their own strengths, rather than defaulting to pace bowling simply for its own sake. Rashid Khan took 2-28 in four overs, and as a premier bowler perhaps should have been used even ahead of Farooqi earlier. But the skipper did not even bowl the second Super Over, and Omarzai was promptly hit for 23, taking the game out of Afghanistan's reach.
Rashid not batting
Admittedly far less egregious than Rashid not bowling, but perhaps an error nonetheless. Omarzai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (who scored 84) batted in the first Super Over, before Omarzai went out with Mohammad Nabi in the second. Rashid, again, had hit 20 off 12 in the chase while Nabi departed for five off six.
As it happened, Nabi missed one ball, and was out off the next. There is no saying Rashid would have done much better. In fact, as missteps go, this was not a massive one, more of a what-if.
Farooqi's running
The final ball of Afghanistan's chase in the main game was truly astounding, and no doubt had several yelling at their screens. They needed two off three balls with one wicket in hand, as Noor Ahmad hit the ball into the outfield on the offside. He and Farooqi ran a single easily, and while the second was on, it was far from guaranteed. Farooqi ended up run out by a hair's breadth, which sent the game into its first Super Over.
Read more: Why Stubbs could bat twice but Ngidi could only bowl once: Super over rules, explained
Batting smarts are not the first thing to expect from No.s 10 and 11, but having taken the single, the game was already tied. They would have had two balls in which to score the last run, the worst case being that a wicket would send them into a Super Over. If they had to risk a run, it could have been done off the final delivery. Going for the second on the ball that they did was simply not worth it, as they discovered. To add to that, Farooqi did not drag his bat in on the second run, instead attempting to place it down – a rookie error which ended up being his undoing.
Rasooli's go-slow
While Gurbaz hit 84 at a strike rate of 200 in the chase, he had precious little support from the rest of the order. No.5 Darwish Rasooli perhaps ended up with the most negatively impactful innings of the chase. Gurbaz kept Afghanistan abreast of the rate, while Rasooli scratched his way to 15 off 18 balls, as the required run rate hovered around 10 throughout.
He was eventually put out of his misery with a run out, and Afghanistan were still in with a chance at that point, but even a par innings of that length would have done them far more good.
The last ball of Super Over one
Another minor moment, perhaps meaning more in hindsight. But off the final ball of their first Super Over, Omarzai jammed down on a yorker that squeezed out towards short fine leg. The batters ran through for one, and hesitated before turning down a second. There was a slight fumble from both fielder and wicketkeeper as the ball came back in.
There could well have been a run out in any case, but Afghanistan's batters had no need to turn down a run, or even hesitate. Their wickets had no value on that final ball, and it should have been a scramble to run as many as possible, or be dismissed trying.
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