WATCH: Afghanistan youngster Waqar Salamkheil stuns Faf du Plessis with a ripper in SA20 2023

MI Cape Town overpowered the Joburg Super Kings in the SA20 2023 at Cape Town on January 14,  as the latter struggled against a strong Cape Town bowling attack. One of the stars of the night was the teenage Afghan spinner, Waqar Salamkheil. Salamkheil demonstrated his potential by ripping out Super Kings skipper Faf du Plessis with an unplayable delivery.

The Super Kings, who were given the opportunity to bat first, lost their opener Reeza Hendricks after only two runs thanks to a spectacular delivery from Kagiso Rabada. As soon as they lost Janneman Malan and Kyle Verreynne in the following over, George Linde’s bowling took a turn for the worst.

However, Salamkheil’s superb delivery that bowled out Du Plessis in the eighth over was the biggest surprise for the Super Kings. Due to the loss of early wickets, du Plessis was unable to hit huge strokes and was under pressure. In his first over of bowling, Salamkheil had a quick one-turn sharply into du Plessis. The ball ripped off the batter’s middle stump before he could bring his bat down in time.

Watch it here:

Kagiso Rabad shines in MI Cape Town victory 

With the dismissal of the JSK skipper, Salamkehil finished his four-over spell by conceding only 19 runs. While Odean Smith, Rashid Khan, and George Linde each grabbed two wickets. Rabada emerged as the MI Cape Town’s top bowler with statistics of 2/12. Leus du Plooy led the way with 21 runs off of 26 balls for the Super Kings, while Malan managed to score 16 runs.

The 21-year-old Afghan spinner Salamkheil missed the first two games for MI Cape Town, but he was given an opportunity when pacer Jofra Archer was sidelined. He has only played in one Test match for Afghanistan, which was against Ireland in March 2019, and has yet to make his white-ball international cricket debut.

South African pacer Rabada was awarded the Man of the Match award for his brilliant performance with the ball. In his spell of four overs, he gave away only 12 runs and took 2 important wickets of opener Hendriks and speedster Gerald Coetzee.