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Heartbreak for Gurbaz and Afghanistan as South Africa win after double Super Over
South Africa survived the T20 World Cup’s group of death by outlasting Afghanistan in a match that went into two Super Overs.
They had it won when the last over of regulation time began with Afghanistan needing 13 with one wicket in hand. Kagiso Rabada, though, bowled two no-balls, but a running error allowed them to tie the match. South Africa were then done and dusted but Tristan Stubbs hit a last-ball six to force a second Super Over. This one left Afghanistan needing four sixes off four balls; Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who scored 84 off 42 in regulation time, hit three of them, needed just a four to take it to the third Super Over after Keshav Maharaj bowled a wide, but hit straight to point.
A couple of metres either side, and Afghanistan would have had another shot at beating South Africa in a T20I for the first time. Losing semi-finalists last edition, now they are left needing more than just wins against UAE and Canada to make it out of the first round.
Allowed no soft launch by the draw, having lost the first match against New Zealand, Afghanistan came into this must-win encounter spin-heavy on a pitch with some grip. Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton, though, scored twin half-centuries to give their taller bowlers with canny changes of pace just enough – it seemed – to defend despite an outlier effort by Gurbaz. However, Rabada and Marco Jansen made closing errors against the No. 10 Noor Ahmad. With two needed off the last three balls – first of those a free hit – the last pair took an improbable second to give South Africa a lifeline and the T20 World Cup its first double Super Over.
The skilled left-arm quick Fazalhaq Farooqi who would later make the error to cause the tie, got off to a superb start, swinging the ball each way and taking out Aiden Markram with a slower ball to expose two left-hand batters to offspinners. The shapes Rickelton’s body makes when playing shots can often be similar to de Kock’s, and he has for long been the natural heir. At times, South Africa have found it difficult to accommodate both in the same XI. They will be thankful they had these two here.
It was de Kock – only 6.94 per over against spin so far in his T20 career – who broke the shackles after a start of 12 for 1 in four overs. Whatever de Kock did, though, Rickelton did with more brute force. Left-arm wristspinner Noor, brought in this match as the only change, bore the biggest brunt of it. De Kock welcomed him with a six over long-on first ball, and two balls later Rickelton hit an even bigger one.
The duo even got to their fifties in the same over: the 11th, bowled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Rickelton took only 23 balls, de Kock 34, but it was de Kock who had taken on spin early on.
Taken down for 21 runs in his first two overs, captain Rashid Khan started the comeback for Afghanistan with the wickets of Rickelton and de Kock in the same over to reach 699 T20 wickets. The duo added 114 in 10.1 overs to take South Africa to 126 in the 13th over, but now began a new game. Afghanistan offered batters little pace, and only a couple of big blows from Jansen in the end took them to 187. That was just 63 runs off the last 7.3 overs.
Brief scores:
South Africa 187 for 6 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 61, Quinton de Kock 59, Dewald Brevis 23, David Miller 20*, Marco Jansen 16; Fazalhaq Farooki 1-32, Azmatullah Omarzai 3-41, Rashid Khan 2-28) beat Afghanistan 187 in 19.4 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 84, Ibrahim Zadran 12, Daewish Rasooli 15, Azmatullah Omarzai 22, Rashid Khan 20, Noor Ahmed 15*; Lungi Ngidi 3-26. Marco Jansen 1-42, Kagiso Rabada 1-38, George Linde 1-39, Keshav Maharaj 1-27) in the Super Over
Afghanistan [Super Over 1] 17/0 [Azmatullah Omarzai 16*, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 01*]
South Africa [Super Over 1] 17/1 [David Miller 01*, Dewald Brewis 06, Tristan Stubbs 10*; Fazalhaq Farooqi 1-17]
South Africa [Super Over 2] 23/0, [Tristan Stubbs 07*, David Miller 16*]
Afghanistan [Super Over 2] 19/2 [Mohammed Nabi 00, Azmatullah Omarzai 00*, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 18; Keshav Maharaj 2-19]
The head of Turkiye’s football refereeing body and four other officials have been placed in pretrial detention by a court as part of a corruption investigation, the state news agency Anadolu reports.
Ferhat Gundogdu, head of the Central Referees Committee, and six others appeared before a judge over allegations of manipulation of the referee administration process, Anadolu said on Saturday.
They appeared on Friday before a judge at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse on several charges, including forgery of official documents, breach of trust and illegal acquisition of personal data, the report said.
The judge remanded five people in custody and granted the other two conditional release, Anadolu said.
It was the latest scandal to shake football in Turkiye, coming exactly a year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees on charges of illegal betting.
On Thursday night, police from the illegal betting and sports crime unit also detained Yasin Kol, a referee from Turkiye’s top-flight Super Lig, as well as an assistant referee, media reports said.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors are examining claims about “interference in the processes of referee classification, assignments, scoring and appointments as well as the exams on rules”.
During raids on Tuesday, police searched the VAR room at TFF’s headquarters in Istanbul. Observers said the investigation was likely linked to last year’s betting scandal and would have implications for the federation.
“It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further,” sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told the AFP news agency.
Sensoy, who wrote a 2024 book on the issue called The Gambling Pit, said it was unlikely that federation bosses “have any chance of staying in office”.
So far, the TFF has not directly addressed the arrests as its top officials are due to fly home on Saturday after attending Friday night’s Belgium-Turkiye UEFA Nations League clash in Liege, which Turkiye lost 3-0.
[Aljazeera]
A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.
New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.
Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.
The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.
“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.
“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”
“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.
[Aljazeera]
Polls have opened in Latvia for an election taking place against the backdrop of perceived security threats from Russia and a nationwide cost-of-living squeeze.
Saturday’s vote is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs after coming to power in May this year when his predecessor resigned due to a backlash from stray drone incursions from Ukraine.
Kulbergs, whose right-wing United List party is currently polling at about 20 percent, is expected to hold onto his position, but the decline of two allies in his current coalition means he is set for a complicated negotiation over the makeup of any future government.
Polls opened at 05:00 GMT and will close at 17:00 GMT. The results are not expected to change Latvia’s pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course.
About 1.5 million people are eligible to vote in the country’s 11th parliamentary election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Latvian politics are highly fragmented, with parties rarely seeing above 20 percent vote share and coalitions being the norm.
This year, 14 electoral lists are contesting the election, but polls indicate only seven are likely to enter parliament, with the rest expected to fail to meet the minimum 5 percent vote threshold.
Rising living costs, low wages, strains on the healthcare system and long-term population decline have all featured prominently in campaign debates.
Most parties in Latvia are pro-Ukraine; however, the populist Sovereign Power party – which says it wants Ukraine to win but argues money spent supporting Kyiv would be better spent at home – looks likely to become the country’s second-biggest party, with more than 9 percent of the vote. Most other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with Sovereign Power.
Latvia First, a pro-Ukraine and populist nationalist party currently polling at about 9 percent, could be a potential coalition partner for PM Kulbergs.
The Progressives, a pro-European social democratic party, are polling at 6 percent.
Ethnic Russians make up roughly one in four Latvian citizens, but their vote, which has traditionally been cast along identity-based lines, looks set to be made according to economic and social issues.
Latvia is the poorest of the Baltic states, and it has sharply increased its defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine, now allocating nearly 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence.
[Aljazeera]
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