Afghanistan choked and and lost from a winning position against South Africa in the Quadrangular Under-19 one-day series at the Sports Hub here on Saturday.
Chasing 201 for its first win in the tournament, Afghanistan appeared to have sealed the contest, when just 18 were needed from five overs and four wickets in hand.
But Man-of-the-Match Byrce Parson (two for 32) and Marco Jansen (four for 23) dried up the runs as Afghanistan’s lower-order wilted under pressure and lost by nine runs.
Left-arm medium-pacer Jansen profited from Parson’s spell. He first forced the well-settled Islam Khan (21) to edge to wicketkeeper Luke Beaufort while Shafiqullah Ghafri ran himself out for a duck.
In his final over Marco cleaned up Mohammed Hassan Khan (7) and Faxal Haq Farooqi (0) off successive deliveries to give his side an unlikely win.
After Achille Cloete’s twin strikes reduced Afghanistan to 29 for three, the 88-run stand between Farhan Khan (63) and Reyaz Hassan (35) put the chase back on track. However, Parson derailed it with the prize wicket of Farhan.
Earlier, put in, the South African batsmen found the Afghanistan spinners hard to get away.
Luke Beaufort (40) and Byrce Parson (40) added 57 for the fourth wicket without really challenging the slow bowlers. After Parson’s dismissal the South African innings suffered a slump before finishing at 200.
The scores: South Africa 200 in 49.5 overs (Bryce Parson 40, Luke Beaufort 40, Andile Mogakane 38, Reyaz Hassan three for 26) bt Afghanistan 191 in 48.3 overs ( Farhan Khan 63, Reyaz Hassan 35, Marco Jansen four for 23) .
