Farooqi and Ghazanfar star Afghanistan defeat South Africa by 6 wickets in the first ODI

The Afghanistan Cricket Team, under the captaincy of Hashmatullah Shahidi, scripted history as they defeated the Aiden Markram-led South Africa by six wickets in the first One Day International of the three-match ODI series.

The duo of Fazalhaq Farooqi (4-35) and 18-year-old wonderkid Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar (3-20) were the heroes as the Afghans secured their first ever victory over the Proteas in any format of International Cricket.

The Aiden Markram-led team had a horrific day with the bat as the Afghan bowlers kept picking up wickets at regular intervals and eventually, the South Africans got all-out for a really shambolic score of 106 runs.

The Proteas managed to avoid their lowest-score in a One Day International game as their team’s batters were not able to find any answers to the bowling brilliance of the home side.

Markram had opted to bat first after winning the toss. The opening duo of Tony de Zorzi and Reeza Hendricks added 17 runs for the opening wicket before left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi clean bowled Hendricks for nine runs which started a really embarrassing and shocking batting collapse of the Proteas as they slumped to 36-7.

Farooqi took the scalps of De Zorzi (11 runs in 18 balls) and skipper Aiden Markram (2 runs in 5 balls) while Ghazanfar added the wickets of Jason Smith (0 runs in 5 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (0 runs in 5 balls) to his tally before dismissing Kyle Verreynne for 10 runs.

The problems for the visitors increased even more when Andile Phehlukwayo got run out off the bowling of Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar as Nabi’s quick reaction time was enough to send him back to the pavilion.

With just 10 overs bowled out of 50, it looked like the South Africans lowest-score record in One Day Internationals of 69 runs, scored versus Australia in 1993, would be in danger of getting broken.

However, much to the dismay of Afghanistan fans, the sinking ship of the Proteas was steadied by the duo of Bjorn Fortuin and Wiaan Mulder, as they stitched a partnership of 39 runs for the eighth wicket.

The partnership between the two was broken by Rashid Khan, who was playing his first One Day International match since the 2023 ODI World Cup, as he cleaned bowled Fortuin, but Wiaan helped his team go past the 100 runs mark and in the process, brought up his maiden half-century as well.

However, after bringing up his fifty, Mulder didn’t stay at the crease for a long time and he was sent packing by Farooqi. Wiann scored 52 runs in 84 deliveries which consisted of a maximum and five fours.

Rashid Khan took the final South African wicket as caught Lungi Ngidi plumb in front of the stumps in the 34th over and ended the game with figures of 2-30 next to his name.

The hosts were expected to cruise to an easy victory without facing any difficulties but that was not the case as both the openers fell early.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz got dismissed for a three ball duck off the bowling of Lungi Ngidi and Rahmat Shah followed suit as he was caught in front of the stumps by Bjorn Fortuin as the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led team were struggling at 15-2 after the end of eight overs.

Aiden Markram and his men tried their best to inflict a comeback as Fortuin registered his second wicket by getting rid of Riaz Hassan (16 runs in 35 balls) while stand in skipper Aiden Markram accounted for the wicket of Afghanistan captain Hasmatullah Shahidi (16 runs in 29 balls).

However, the duo of Gulbadin Naib (34* runs in 27 balls) and Azmatullah Omarzai (25* runs in 36 balls) helped their get over the line by six wickets.