So Afghanistan slip away to lick their wounds. Over-achieved this World Cup but were stung today by relentless excellence from the South African bowlers and a pitch that would switch from chilli to ice cream and back again within an over.
South Africa, seemingly nerve-less, go through to their first final after so many stinging disappointments. They march to Barbados unbeaten in the competition, where they will face one of India or England. That semi-final blasts off at 3.30pm BST.
Time for me to pull myself up the stairs to bed. Thanks for your company as ever. Congratulations South Africa, and good night!
But if you want more, South Africa fans, here is Martin Pegan’s full report:
Updated
Rashid Khan and his men do a lap of honour, look a bit less shell-shocked now. Rashid waving and giving thumbs up to those he recognises in the crowd. Now he’s been hauled in to do his media.
“I think it was a tough night for us as a team and we could’ve done better than us. But conditions didn’t let us do that but you should be mentally ready for any situation. I thought we didn’t bat well.
“We have enjoyed it a lot, overall quite happy with the way we managed ourselves in pressure situations and winning big games in big competitions. Is just a beginning for us, we can beat any side on our day. Overall a great tournament for us.”
He finishes off with a couple of paragraphs in Pashto.
Now Aidan Markram: “It feels good, not really the captain who gets you to the final, it is a massive collective effort. A special bowling performance, fortunate to have lost the toss, we also would have batted. Bowlers still had to get the balls in the right areas and made life tough for the Afghanistan batters. Quite tough to bat in, we knew it was a matter of getting a partnership up front, chuffed to have got it over the line. A lot of our games have been really close and I know there are a lot of people who’ve been waking up early back home with grey hairs and hope this was a bit less nervy. A lot of belief in this group, as a white ball group we’ve all been together for some time.”
Updated
