South Africa crush Afghanistan

The result eliminates Afghanistan from the tournament but the team representing the war-torn country can take encouragement from an aggressive and enthusiastic bowling display that restricted South Africa to a modest score of 139 for seven.

Graeme Smith (27) and Jacques Kallis (34) provided the backbone to a largely unconvincing South African batting display but their fast bowlers proved far too much for a team making their first appearance in a major tournament.

The result means that none of the un-favoured teams, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Ireland or Afghanistan, have advanced from the group stage of the competition.

The Afghan batting display showed a gulf in technique and experience as the top order proved unable to cope with pace, with Morne Morkel taking four wickets in three devastating overs.

At times the Afghan batsmen looked unnerved by the pace and bounce of the Kensington Oval pitch and none of their top seven Afghan batsmen made double figures.

They slumped to 25 for seven before Mirwais Ashraf restored some pride and provided the crowd with some excitement, hitting two sixes in his spirited 23 from 25 balls.

Hamid Hassan, who had earlier bowled superbly taking three wickets for 21 run from his four overs and showed himself to be an accomplished "death bowler" bowling a full length with his in-swing, clobbered two more sixes in his cameo off 22.

South Africa have little time to reflect on their win -- they face New Zealand on Thursday following the opening Super Eight game between England and Pakistan.

SCOREBOARD

South Africa:
Graeme Smith c Mangal b Nabi 27
Loots Bosman  run out (Zadran/Shenwari) 0
Jacques Kallis   c Shahzad b Hassan 34
AB de Villiers   st Shahzad b Mangal 17
Jean Paul Duminy c Mangal b Hassan 25         
Mark Boucher lbw Hassan 4
Albie Morkel    c Mangal b Zadran 23
Roelof van der Merwe not out 2
Dale Steyn not out 1    
Extras:   (lb 4, w 2)  6               
Total: (for seven wickets in 20 overs)     139

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Bosman, 1.1 overs), 2-45 (Smith, 4.2), 3-77 (de Villiers, 10.3), 4-84 (Kallis, 12.1), 5-90 (Boucher, 14.1), 6-133 (Duminy, 18.2), 7-137 (Albie Morkel, 19.4)

Bowling:                      
Shapoor Zadran 3-0-29-1                   
Mirwais Ashraf 2-0-18-0                    
Mohammad Nabi 4-0-33-1                 
Samiullah Shenwari 4-0-14-0                          
Nowroz Mangal 3-0-20-1       
Hamid Hassan  4-0-21-3

Afghanistan:
Noor Ali c Boucher b Steyn      0         
Karim Sadiq c de Villiers b Morne Morkel 2    
Mohammad Shahzad    c Boucher b Steyn 2
Nowroz Mangal c Kallis b Morne Morkel 1     
Asghar Stanikzai c Steyn b Langeveldt 3
Raees Ahmadzai c Boucher b Morne Morkel  4           
Mohammad Nabi c Duminy b Morne Morkel 0
Samiullah Shenwari       run out (de Villiers) 11 
Mirwais Ashraf  b Langeveldt 23
Hamid Hassan  c Kallis b Langeveldt    22       
Shapoor Zadran not out 1        
Extras:   (lb 1, w 8, nb 2)  11    
Total:    (all out in 16 overs) 80

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Noor Ali, 0.3 overs), 2-5 (Mohammad Shahzad, 2.3), 3-7 (Nowroz Mangal, 3.1), 4-8 (Karim Sadiq, 3.4), 5-12 (Raees Ahmadzai, 3.6), 6-14 (Mohammad Nabi, 5.1), 7-25 (Asghar Stanikzai, 6.5), 8-32 (Samiullah Shenwari, 7.5), 9-65 (Mirwais Ashraf, 13.1)

Bowling:
Dale Steyn 3-0-6-2
Charl Langeveldt 4-0-12-3      
Morne Morkel  3-0-20-4         
Roelof van der Merwe 4-0-21-0         
Albie Morkel    2-0-20-0

Points table

 Group A       P  W  L  T  NR PTS

 Australia*     2  2  0  0  0   4
 Pakistan*      2  1  1  0  0   2
 Bangladesh    2  0  2  0  0   0


 Group B

 New Zealand*  2  2  0  0  0   4
 Sri Lanka*       2  1  1  0  0   2
 Zimbabwe        2  0  2  0  0   0


 Group C

 India*           2  2  0  0  0   4
 South Africa* 2  1  1  0  0   2
 Afghanistan    2  0  2  0  0   0


 Group D

 West Indies*  2  2  0  0  0  4
 England*       2  0  1  0  1  1
 Ireland          2  0  1  0  1  1