A gritty third-wicket partnership of 91 off 111 balls between Muhammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha set up a tense two-wicket victory with two balls to spare for Pakistan over South Africa in the first ODI at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on Tuesday.
The tight win put Pakistan one up in the three-match series with further games on Thursday and Saturday at the same venue.
Pakistan’s run chase, which finished on 264-8, was the highest successful chase in ODIs by Pakistan at Faisalabad.
It was also Faisalabad’s first chance to host an international match for 17 years and a boisterous capacity crowd of 16 484 were there to witness it.
South Africa’s skipper, Matthew Breetzke, said afterwards: “I think we were 20-30 runs short. We lost wickets in clusters. But there are lots of positives. Obviously Lhuan-dre is a very special player with a bright future and it was great to have Quinton back, he batted nicely. Pakistan were always favourites towards the end but I’m proud of the bowlers and how hard they fought. We kept believing, but unluckily it didn’t happen.”
PAKISTAN WOBBLE AFTER GOOD START
South Africa, put in to bat by Pakistan, enjoyed a good start through half-centuries from openers Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Quinton de Kock but struggled later on as they lost their last nine wickets for 116 runs to be dismissed for 263 in 49.1 overs.
Pakistan’s innings followed a similar profile, with openers Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman adding 87 before a wobble occurred in which they lost three wickets for 18 runs, including kingpin Babar Azam for seven.
But then a sometimes painstaking, occasionally lucky, partnership between Rizwan and Salman saw Pakistan steadily through to the verge of what looked like a comfortable victory before never-say-die South Africa began taking wickets again, causing some of the Pakistan batters to panic.
Rizwan’s dismissal began the nervy finish for the hosts, clipping Corbin Bosch to Pretorius at deep midwicket where he pulled off a good catch diving forward.
Rizwan struck six fours in his gritty 55 in 74 balls and that should have been enough.
But Hasan Nawaz, having helped Salman to add 45 for the fifth wicket, then fell to Ngidi, caught low down by George Linde off the paceman’s slower ball.
Hasan Nawaz, hoping to finish things off, then danced down the track to Linde and was hopelessly left adrift as De Kock completed the stumping.
Then it was the turn of Mohammad Nawaz, who got a leading edge to Bosch to be caught by Fortuin.
A dozen runs were needed off the last two overs and it took a lofted drive for six by skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi to finally bring Pakistan to the precipice, although it took a scampered leg bye to achieve victory with two balls and two wickets to spare.
South Africa’s bowlers performed particularly well, with left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin the pick of them, although his final figures of 1-38 in 10 overs did not give a true reflection of how well he bowled and how unlucky he was not to take more wickets.
Ngidi, Donovan Ferreira and Bosch claimed two wickets each.
DE KOCK AND PRETORIUS STAR WITH THE BAT
Earlier, debutant Pretorius and De Kock struck half-centuries to give South Africa a flying start to their innings.
The Proteas found batting much easier in the first half of their innings, but struggled as the ball grew softer, stuck in the pitch and no longer came onto the bat.
It was Pretorius, making his ODI debut, who particularly impressed up front, commandeering the early strike, timing the ball superbly and hitting with great force. De Kock, who didn’t face a ball until the middle of the third over, was happy to play the supporting role.
The pair added 62 in the first power play, with Pretorius reaching 47 off 44 balls. Pretorius went to his half-century immediately after the break, becoming the 11th South African to reach the mark in his first ODI.
The pair had added 98 in 96 balls, with very little happening for the Pakistan bowlers, when Pretorius was out edging a drive off offspinner Saim Ayub.
It was one of the few balls to turn and Mohammad Nawaz clasped a good diving catch at backward point.
The left-hander struck seven fours and a six in his 60-ball innings.
De Kock eventually started to flourish and the experienced left-hander, playing his first ODI innings in two years, added 43 in 52 balls with Tony de Zorzi before chopping on to paceman Naseem Shah for 63 (71 balls, 6x4s, 2x6s), his 31st ODI half-century.
Conditions now began to change in the middle overs with the Pakistan spinners making life increasingly awkward for the batters.
De Zorzi got a leading edge and was caught and bowled by Saim, but skipper Matthew Breetzke, after a slow start, dug in effectively for 42 in 40 balls, including two fours and two sixes.
He was kept good company, for a while, by ODI debutant Sinethemba Qeshile (22) before he fell to a catch at short third man.
Ferreira and Linde both fell cheaply, frustrated over not being able to score freely, and it took Bosch to edge the Proteas past the 250-mark.
The allrounder struck six fours in his fine innings of 41 in 40 balls, giving his team something to defend.
PAKISTAN: Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Agha, Hussain Talat, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi (capt), Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed
SOUTH AFRICA: Quinton de Kock (wk), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Tony de Zorzi, Matthew Breetzke (capt), Sinethemba Qeshile, Donovan Ferreira, George Linde, Corbin Bosch, Bjorn Fortuin, Lungi Ngidi, Lizaad Williams
