South Africa skittle Afghanistan to reach first T20 World Cup final

:A clinical South Africa skittled Afghanistan for 56 on their way to a comprehensive nine-wicket victory in the first Twenty20 World Cup semi-final in Trinidad on Wednesday, sending the Proteas into their first ever final.

It was a first victory in eight short-format World Cup semi-finals going back to 1992 for South Africa, who will now take on the winner of Thursday's second semi-final between India and holders England for the title in Barbados on Saturday.

The perennial underachievers looked anything but as they ripped through the Afghan batting in less than 12 overs at Brian Lara Stadium to restrict their shellshocked opponents to their lowest ever score in T20 internationals.

South Africa's batting has stuttered at times during the tournament and Fazalhaq Farooqi bowled Quinton de Kock early, but Reeza Hendricks and skipper Aiden Markram got the Proteas to their target without further losses inside nine overs.

"Really chuffed for us to have one more crack at lifting a trophy," Markram said.

"A lot of our games have been really close and I know there's a lot of people back at home in the early hours of the morning waking up, and we've given them a lot of grey hairs.

"So hopefully this evening was a little bit more comforting for them."

Afghanistan, playing their first semi-final after a thrilling victory over Bangladesh in their last Super Eight match in St Vincent on Monday, won the toss and chose to bat.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the highest run-scorer at the tournament, and Ibrahim Zadran had been the mainstay of the Afghan batting with three century opening partnerships on their fairytale run to the last four.

Left-arm quick Marco Jansen (3-16) removed Gurbaz for a duck with just four runs on the board in the opening