Afghanistan nearly pulled off a dramatic victory but went down in the second Super Over against South Africa in the T20 World Cup 2026 in Ahmedabad, a result that has virtually ended their hopes of progressing to the Super Eight stage. South Africa posted 187 in their 20 overs, and Afghanistan responded with an equally determined effort to level the scores and force a Super Over.

In what turned out to be one of the most gripping contests the format has witnessed, Afghanistan were later reminded not to dwell on what went wrong, but instead to take pride in their performance and the role they played in delivering a thrilling spectacle.

Rashid Khan conceded that no individual was to blame for the defeat and emphasised that everyone gave their best effort.

''We were in Ahmedabad and we told the manager to order food. Peshawari food: their dal bukhara, dal makhani, I told him to order that and bring some tandoori chicken so that we can vent our anger on that," said Rashid as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"No one should say that he did this or he did that because it brings negativity in the team. No one has lost, just our team has lost. We put in a lot of effort, but we never blame any player for being in a Super Over.

I always tell everyone that as a captain I don't want to hear any of these things. It disappoints me more than the game when you're blaming the players. We all put in the effort,” he added.

Rashid admitted that he has still not gotten over the heartbreaking defeat and compared it to Afghanistan’s loss against Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup in Mumbai.

In that match, Afghanistan were on course to secure a historic semi-final berth after posting 291/5 and reducing Australia to 91/7. However, Glenn Maxwell produced a sensational double-century to turn the game around and knock Afghanistan out of the tournament.

"To be honest, it's pretty hard. It's very, very hard to lose that game where we had it in our hand a couple of times and then it just slips off your hand and it disappoints you. It doesn't go away from your mind.

Like, the game we played against Australia in the 2023 World Cup at Wankhede, it never goes out of the mind, until we win against them in the 2024 World Cup. And then slowly it got out of the mind. After the game that night, we all gathered in the manager's room, and called all the players to come up there. We had a good dinner and just talked positively, just to keep supporting each other. I feel like this is so important,” said Rashid.

"The only message I was giving to the players is, this is the time we have to stick together and we have to keep our heads up. If we don't let ourselves down, we can achieve bigger things.

But if we let ourselves down, it's going to disappoint us. It's going to just push us one or two years back, and that's something which we don't want. So we learn from it, we keep moving, we keep our heads up and we put effort. We haven't got the result, but the effort was there, which was more pleasing than anything else,” he added.

In the immediate term, Afghanistan must confront the strong possibility of a group-stage exit. Having already suffered defeats to New Zealand and South Africa, their path to qualification has become highly complicated. They now need to win both of their remaining matches against the UAE and Canada. Beyond that, they must hope the UAE defeat South Africa and Canada overcome New Zealand, a scenario that would leave Afghanistan’s qualification hinging on net run rate.

The leg-spinner expressed his disappointment, noting that the setback undermines much of the hard work the team has put in to compete at this level and establish themselves as a formidable side in global tournaments.

"In the one or one and a half years, we worked hard for this to get the result and sometimes it doesn't go your way. It is quite challenging, I feel like out of 100 times, if you got the success 99 times, the one time you don't get it, people will talk about that one time, and they forget (the good results) and that's something which is more challenging. To keep that level high, I feel it's quite challenging but it's fun as well. Like you don't need to do many different things, you have to bring your own skills and that skill comes from practice. The more hard work you put in the practice, the more control you have over your skills in the game. So it is pressure, but it's enjoyable as well,” said Rashid.