The jinx has been broken. South Africa are in a World Cup final, riding on a clinical bowling performance with Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje taking turns to dismantle Afghanistan’s top-order before Tabraiz Shamsi ran through the lower order to bundle them out for 56 at Port of Spain on Wednesday night.

Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram then guided South Africa to a nine-wicket win, a record eighth for the team in this World Cup. The occasion clearly got to Afghanistan after two emotionally draining wins against Australia and Bangladesh as they couldn’t come up with a back-up strategy once South Africa’s pacers got a breakthrough in the form of opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the highest scorer of the tournament.

“It was a tough night for us as a team and we could've done better than that,” said Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan after the defeat.

That said, this has been Afghanistan’s most successful World Cup campaign in their 20-year international journey, and Khan wants his team to build on this success. “If you told us we would be playing the semi-final against South Africa, we would accept that. Next time when we participate in a tournament like this, we will have the belief.”

Afghanistan’s bowling has been first-class but for too long their batting has been reliant on the starts openers Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran give them. They finally ran out of luck when Jansen had Gurbaz caught at slip by Reeza Hendricks in the first over of the match.

Afghanistan prefer to defend but they failed to show the tenacity to adjust to a Tarauba pitch that had variable bounce and offered a fair bit of movement to the seamers. Gurbaz’s dismissal triggered unfounded panic that sunk Afghanistan’s hopes even before the Powerplay was over.

Gulbadin Naib was bowled by an incoming delivery from Jansen, Zadran was nowhere near Rabada’s incoming delivery, and Mohammad Nabi too was squared up by the nip of the seam three balls later. Once Anrich Nortje had dismissed Azmatullah Omarzai—caught at the deep by Tristan Stubbs—Afghanistan were 28/6 and in no shape or state to mount a comeback.

Khan conceded there was a lot of "hard work to be done, especially in the middle order". “We need to be aggressive and have someone to take the innings deep,” he said. “We have achieved some good results but when we come back in the tournament, we need to do better, especially in the batting department.”

Even the most optimistic Afghanistan fan knew the lowest total in a T20 World Cup semi-final didn’t stand a great chance to be defended. But they tried. Eighteen dots had been bowled within the first four overs when Quinton de Kock’s stumps were taken apart by Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Visibly bothered by the variable bounce, Hendricks and Markram took their time till Afghanistan’s pacers started faltering on their lengths. Couple of cracking drives off the shorter balls and South Africa were on their way to a famous win.

“It feels good. It's a massive squad effort. Really chuffed for us to have one more crack at lifting that trophy,” said skipper Aiden Markram, adding that South Africa too would have opted to bat had they won the toss.

“Fortunate to have lost that toss, we also would've batted. The bowlers got it in the right areas and kept it really simple in these conditions. We had a bit of luck and managed to get a bit of a partnership. There are a lot of people waking up with a little bit more grey hair, but this win will be more comforting for them. We've never been there (final) before, but there's a lot of belief. It takes a full squad to put together a really good game of cricket.”