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CWC 2019 Recap: South Africa register their first win, finally

South Africa's Hashim Amla in action

©Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers

By Cricket World

A Cricket World series, CWC 2019 Recap looks at all the high-octane encounters from the last year's ODI World Cup: from Jofra Archer's bouncers to Rohit Sharma's hundreds and from Mitchell Starc's yorkers to Virat Kohli's antics.

Match Summary

South Africa 131-1 (Quinton de Kock 68, Hashim Amla 41*)

Afghanistan 126 (Rashid Khan 35; Imran Tahir 4-29, Chris Morris 3-13)

Result – South Africa won by 9 wickets (D/L)

Scorecard

Faf du Plessis decided to bowl first after winning the toss in the 21st match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff and his bowlers didn't disappoint. Tahir, Morris and Phehlukwayo were professional as their efforts helped South Africa bundle out the opposition for a paltry score of 125.

The rain stoppages made life even more difficult for the Afghan batsmen by hampering their concentration but that can't be used as an excuse at this level, especially in a World Cup. They certainly should have put a better batting performance than 125 all out. Dropping Najibullah Zadran, their highest run getter of the tournament, proved to be an error.

In reply, South African openers got off to a cautious start but de Kock was quick to shift gears as he notched up his second fifty of the tournament. The match could have got over much earlier if he wasn't dismissed.

Hashim Amla got back among the runs with his knock of 40-odd but it wasn't a fluent knock as his strike rate was on the lower side. Overall, South Africa were upbeat with this win and took some confidence in their next match against New Zealand.