Sports Desk
CHENNAI: South Africa hammered Pakistan to secure a 1-wicket victory in the World Cup on Friday in Chennai, pushing Babar Azam’s men closer towards an elimination from the mega tournament.
With three matches left and four defeats, Pakistan will want all things to go their way for semis qualification — as the results of other teams and net run rate will be crucial for the Men In Green.
This was also the first time since 1999 that the Proteas defeated the Green Shirts in an ODI World Cup.
Proteas now has five wins out of six games whereas Pakistan have only two with three games remaining.
Temba Bavuma and his men had a few hiccups during the chase of 271 but Aiden Markram’s impressive knock of 91 pushed them to the finish line.
Earlier, Pakistan were bowled out for 270 in 46.4 overs. Tabraiz Shamsi bagged figures of 4/60 while Marco Jansen finished with figures of 3/49. Emerging pacer Gerald Coetzee took two wickets for 2/42.
Pakistan lost both their openers – Abdullah Shafique (9) and Imamul Haq (12) – for cheap scores as Marco Jansen struck twice to bring the team under pressure.
Skipper Babar Azam (50) and Mohammad Rizwan tried to build a partnership in order to boost the total but Gerald Coetzee dismissed the latter for 31. The Pakistan captain was removed for 50 and Iftikhar Ahmed fell for 21 by Tabraiz Shamsi. Saud Shakeel (52) and Shadab Khan (43) took the aggressive route and put scores on the board with fiery boundaries. After their removal, Mohammad Nawaz tried to keep up the momentum so a reasonable total could be built against the Proteas. However, he pulled poorly on Jansen’s delivery and was caught on the off side.
In the chase, Quinton de Kock (28) started aggressively, however, he was caught by Wasim Jr. on the bowling of Shaheen Afridi. Skipper Temba Bavuma (24) also took the charge but Wasim removed him.
Rassie Van der Dussen and Aiden Markram steered along but two quick wickets brought Pakistan back. Markram paired with Miller to post a 70-run stand for the fifth wicket until Shaheen removed Miller (29) while Wasim Jr had the better of Jansen (20) to give some hope to Pakistan.
