Afghanistan wins the toss and bats first against South Africa in cricket’s T20 World Cup semifinals

TAROUBA, Trinidad (AP) — Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan won the toss Wednesday and opted to bat first against South Africa in the first of the Twenty20 World Cup semifinals.

Both teams are aiming to reach a cricket World Cup final for the first time, lending more tension to the occasion. And both are taking unchanged lineups into the knockout game.

Afghanistan is playing in the last four for the first time. South Africa has been a top contender for decades in cricket’s limited-overs formats but has a record of just one win in 10 previous knockout games at the global tournaments.

Defending champion England and India will meet in the second semifinal on Thursday.

Afghanistan has three of the five leading bowlers so far in the tournament and two of the top three batters, based on runs scored.

Rashid said he wanted to put a big total on the board and set a difficult chase for South Africa.

“This game is huge for us and we just make sure we go with the right mindset and mentality,” he said, “and make sure we bring our own skills into the game and make the skills decide.”

Afghanistan reached the semifinals at a cricket World Cup for the first time with wins over 2021 champion Australia and Bangladesh in the Super Eight stage.

South Africa is unbeaten at the tournament, but had to endure tough contests and narrow wins over Nepal, Netherlands, Bangladesh and England and only beat West Indies with five balls to spare in the Super Eight stage.

After reaching the second round at the previous three T20 World Cups but failing to advance, Afghanistan knocked out New Zealand in the group stage and then beat Australia for the first time last weekend to reach the final four.

Afghans in their thousands took to the streets of Kabul to celebrate the national team’s progress in the Caribbean.

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