Andy Flower Calls South Africa vs Afghanistan, T20 World Cup Semi-Final Pitch "Dangerous"

Former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower on Thursday labelled the pitch for the T20 World Cup semifinal in Trindidad as ‘dangerous' after Afghanistan suffered a nine-wicket defeat to South Africa. On a tough pitch with variable bounce and exaggerated seam movement, Afghanistan folded for a mere 56 in 11.5 overs for their lowest T20I total as South Africa made their first-ever World Cup final. While Flower backed Afghanistan's decision to bat after winning the toss, he said it was impossible for the batters to gauge the bounce off the surface.

“You can't blame Afghanistan for doing what they did at the toss. They had such an excellent record batting first and then defending with a very good varied attack of their own,” Flower told ESPNCricinfo.

“But batting first was a really tough ask. You didn't know what a good score would be and they were just blown away.” “A couple of balls flew off a length around, sort of shoulder, neck, chin height off the South African quicks and one of them flew over Quinton de Kock — the ‘keeper's head and gloves for four byes. I was pleased that no one got hurt,” Flower said.

Flower, who coaches Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL, said visuals of the pitch revealed the cracks and blocks which produced a ‘wild variance in bounce'.

“You saw some interesting visual shots from above the square and a couple of the commentators referenced this being a brand new pitch. Perhaps, they could have used a pitch that had been used previously,” he said.

“Those shots showed that crazy paving-type effect and that those blocks and the cracks produced this wild variance in bounce. As a batter, you're trying to predict where the ball is going to be. You want to meet it somewhere near the middle of the bat, at least.”