COMMENT: Sport’s fine margins and inches displayed in extraordinary T20 thriller

In the words of New Zealand’s best sports commentator, Ian Smith … ‘by the barest of margins …’

South Africa beat Afghanistan at the T20 World Cup on Wednesday in what will go down as one of the most enthralling cricket matches ever played.

In the end, the Proteas triumphed, after playing a full match and two super overs, and they now have one foot in the next stage of the competition, the Super Eights, while it will take something of a miracle for Afghanistan to progress.

Then again, stranger things have happened in cricket. As they did on Wednesday, in Ahmedabad.

Coaches and players often talk about the thin margins that separate teams when it comes to winning and losing, and it could not have been closer on Wednesday. Inches were at play … and Afghanistan could just as easily have won the match.

Close calls

South Africa should have won the game in regular play in the 20th over of Afghanistan’s innings, but Kagiso Rabada stepped over the line by an inch, no more, when bowling the first ball of that over. If it wasn’t for that, the wicket he later picked up – the last one of the Afghanistan lineup – could have signalled the end of the match.

Then, with three balls remaining in that final over, Afghanistan needed just two runs to win.

Chasing the second run after hitting the ball into the covers, Fazalhaq Farooqi was run out, by Rabada, who received the throw from the deep by Marco Jansen and launched himself at the stumps. The bat was no more than an inch or two from making its ground, and had the batter not been run out, Afghanistan would have won “by the barest of margins”.

As it was, the scores were tied at 187 runs each. A super over would follow. And more drama …

There, as well as in the regular game, bowlers missed their mark by inches. Balls were delivered too full or too short and they were dispatched to the boundary, with no less than three fours and nine sixes being hit in the two super overs.

Super overs

In the first super over, the teams tied again with 17 runs each … thanks to Tristan Stubbs’ final ball six, clearing the man on the boundary by inches.

Into a second super over … more drama and more close calls. Three sixes on the trot by the brilliant Rahmanullah Gurbaz ensured a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat finish; South Africa’s 23 to Afghanistan’s 19. Oh so close.

Catches were taken, brilliantly; some on the boundary, some closer to the action, Jansen at short fine-leg, Stubbs on the boundary; and there were run-outs … three in the Afghanistan innings, all by inches and the finest of margins.

There were tight calls by the umpires … twice, at least, Keshav Maharaj was deemed to have bowled a wide when it appeared on TV that the balls were inside or over the “wide mark” on the field. Had he not been called on one of those occasions the Proteas might have won before the match went to a super over, and another super over.

Rabada also bowled a wide and a second no ball in his final over to keep Afghanistan in the chase, when it should have been all over on the first ball. Inches and fine margins.

Sport remains the best entertainment. You just can’t script it. You never know what’s going to happen.

And it’s never predictable, even when we think it is.