Proteas to play Afghanistan in historic ODI series next month

The Proteas will meet the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) in a historic three-match ODI series in the UAE from September 18 to 22.

This will be the first bilateral series between the two sides with all three matches to be hosted by the ACB at Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

South Africa have faced Afghanistan on two occasions in 50-over cricket at the past two ICC Men’s Cricket World Cups in 2019 and 2023.

This series will mark their first encounter since South Africa defeated Afghanistan in the semifinal of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in Trinidad and Tobago last month.

“We are excited to embark on this historic ODI series with Afghanistan, who have become a competitive all-round team as evidenced by their recent performances in the 2023 Cricket World Cup and most recently the 2024 T20 World Cup,” Cricket SA (CSA) chair Lawson Naidoo said.

“This is a milestone in our cricketing relations and we look forward to a competitive and entertaining series.”

ACB chair Mirwais Ashraf said: “These fixtures were not initially part of our [ICC's] Future Tours Programme. Still, based on our productive negotiations with our counterparts at CSA, we concluded we will host the Proteas for an ODI series in September.

“They are an excellent team and we are looking forward to hosting them and playing them regularly in future.”

Tour fixtures

• September 18: Afghanistan vs South Africa (Sharjah Cricket Stadium)
• September 20: Afghanistan vs South Africa (Sharjah Cricket Stadium)
• September 22: Afghanistan vs South Africa (Sharjah Cricket Stadium)