JOHANNESBURG: Despite Fakhar Zaman’s 193 runs off 155 balls (embellished by 18 fours and 10 sixes) S. Africa has beaten Green Shirts by 17 runs here Sunday (4th of April, 2021), they scored 324-9.
On the bowling front S. African fast bowler Anrich Nortje sent three Green-Shirts to Pavilion yielding only 63 runs. African opener Quinton de Kock’s bat yielded 80, skipper Temba Bavuma scored 92, Rassie van der Dussen mustered 60 runs up off 37 deliveries and David Miller made half a century facing 27 balls. Finally S. Africa posted the total of 341-6.
Earlier, Pakistan had beaten the South African Cricket team by three wickets in the first One Day International in the final ball thriller. Since 103 runs scored by Babar Azam off 104 deliveries contributed immensely towards Pakistan’s victory, he was declared player of the match. Babar Azam shared a second-wicket partnership of 177 with Imam-ul-Haq, who scored 70.
Then Anrich Nortje attacked the Green Shirts and took four wickets in four overs. Due to this onslaught Pakistan, that was 186 for one, with 18 overs in hand to reach a target of 274, found itself at 203 for five.
At that moment the duo of Mohammad Rizwan and Shadab Khan added 53 in a sixth-wicket stand before calling it a day. It was left upto Faheem Ashraf to hit the winning run off Andile Phehlukwayo off the last ball.
South African skipper Temba Bavuma earlier stated that his squad would attempt to muster up a total in the vicinity of 280: “There might be something in the wicket for the bowlers but on this ground we can score quite a lot at the end if there are wickets in hand.”
It may be noted that the 3-match ODI series is part of the International Cricket Council’s World Cup Super League.
Squads:
South Africa: Temba Bavuma (skipper), Quinton de Kock (wkt), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi
Pakistan: Babar Azam (skipper), Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Haris Rauf
Umpires: Marais Erasmus, Adrian Holdstock (both RSA) TV umpire: Allahudien Paleker (RSA) Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)
Record: Babar Azam’s century on Friday (2nd April, 2021) earned him yet another laurel. By scoring his 13th ODI (in 76 innings) he entered the history book of cricket as the fastest male player to achieve this milestone. Before him it was Hashim Amla who scored 13 ODIs in 83 innings. Virat Kohli and Quinton de Kock’s bats took 86 innings to yield 13 tons.
Newspakistan.tv | YouTube Channel
