Afghanistan and South Africa are set to face off early Thursday in the first semi-final of this year’s T20 World Cup and whichever team wins will make history, as neither have ever played in an ICC T20 World Cup final.

For Afghanistan, the mere thought of making it this far in the tournament was a pipe dream just a few years ago.

However, the team has taken the world by surprise and risen up through the T20 ranks at a meteoric pace.

Since being granted international status in 2011, Afghanistan’s success in just 13 years is testimony to the Afghan cricketing fraternity and the players’ resilience and commitment to the game.

Excitement ahead of the match was almost palpable by Wednesday afternoon with social media platforms buzzing with anticipation for a potential India vs Afghanistan final.

Thousands of users expressed their support for Rashid Khan and his men, a team that has carried the tag of “underdog” for quite some time. While others leaned more towards an India vs South Africa final, an “underdog” win on a global sport stage is not unheard of.

In fact South Africa, also once considered an underdog, pulled off an incredible win in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, after having been in global isolation for years, due to sanctions leveled against the former apartheid government.

This Rugby World Cup had been the first major sporting event to take place in South Africa following the end of apartheid and it was the first Rugby World Cup in which South Africa was allowed to compete.

Today, that match stands as a hugely symbolic moment in South African history.

'One Team, One Country' - Nelson Mandela's slogan to forge unity among a divided nation in 1995

The president at the time, Nelson Mandela, used the opportunity to orchestrate a show of unity among the people of a deeply divided nation by using the slogan “One Team, One Country.”

The former government’s policy of apartheid along with its gross human rights violations had long made South Africa an international pariah and from 1964 to 1992 the country was banned from most global sporting events including the Olympic Games.

Mandela however saw the rugby world cup as a way to help lessen divisions between Black and White South Africans and foster a shared national pride - especially as the country was host to this global event. 

By the time South Africa made it to the final, against New Zealand, the nation had rallied in support of the team, put aside their differences, and were rooting wholeheartedly for their country.

Since then, South Africa has gone on to become a global powerhouse in rugby and in cricket, with countless players earning international respect by playing for foreign clubs and leagues.

To a degree, parallels can almost be drawn between South Africa’s history and Afghanistan’s current situation.

For years, cricket in Afghanistan was considered a Pashtun game, just like Black South Africans originally considered rugby to be a game played exclusively by White South Africans.

But this perception in Afghanistan has changed considerably over the past 10 years. After each victory, each milestone, and each successful sale of a player to one or other cricket league, the Afghanistan fan base has grown.

Today, millions of fans watch the matches on TV, they follow the team and players on social media, and hundreds of thousands of Afghan children look up to national players such as Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Rahmanullah Gurbaz to name just a few.

It’s these players who are the role models, the heroes, who have against all odds risen up through the debris of war and taken the cricketing world by storm.

The power of sport as a uniting force was clear after the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

In his biography, Mandela, Martin Meredith wrote: “The whole of South Africa erupted in celebration, Blacks as joyful as the Whites.”

“Never before had Blacks had cause to show such pride in the efforts of their White countrymen. It was a moment of national fusion that Mandela had done much to inspire.”

Following South Africa's victory, Mandela donned a Springbok rugby shirt and cap and proudly presented the trophy to the South African captain Francois Pienaar.

Years later, when Mandela died, Pienaar said that “when the final whistle blew, this country changed forever.”

It was this display of unity, through sport, that crossed race, tribal and religious lines, and left instead “One Team, One Country”.

In the spirit of Mandela’s words and wisdom, one can understand what Afghanistan’s team captain Rashid Khan was alluding to in his video message on Wednesday when he called on the country, on Afghans at home and around the world, to support their team, and to keep them in their prayers.

But no matter the outcome of the T20 semi-final match on Thursday, the Afghanistan team are already winners in the eyes of millions of fans after having carved out their slice of history - by proving to be worthy of a nation’s pride and unquestionable support. 

Fans across the country can tune in to Ariana Television on Thursday morning from 4.30am for the pre-match show. The match will be broadcast from 5am live and exclusively on Ariana Television. 

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