South Africa vs Pakistan 2013 : 1st T20 - Match Report

South Africa beat Pakistan by 4 runs in a rain affected match. The match was called off when Pakistan were 60/2 in 9.1 chasing South Africa’s modest total of 154. It is Pakistan themselves to blame for this loss, as opener Nasir Jamshed scored a painful 18 off 25 deliveries with only 2 boundaries, both coming off edges. Mohammed Hafeez, the captain too couldn’t maintain a strike rate of over 100 in his 15 ball stay at the crease. It was a also poor from pakistan team’s management and support staff. They should have known the D/L target after each over and should have make batsmen aware of it.

Earlier in the day, South Africa had got off to a flying start scoring 70 runs in 7 overs. Man of the Match Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla tore the Pakistan bowling attack with scores 43 and 31 respectively. Amla spanked the ball through the covers, de Kock used his wrists to smoke the ball through the leg side. Runs rained from their bats even as debutant Bilawal Bhatti showed the first threat. However, with Amla’s wicket, South Africa lost momentum and none of the other batsmen could capitalize on the brilliant start by the openers. They kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and a score of 150 could only be reached because of a couple of big hits by David Miller. Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Hafeez were the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan. Hafeez took the wickets of both the dangerous openers which helped stem the flow of runs. Afridi was much more miser, with bowling figures of 4-0-14-1.

Pakistan’s reply began fortuitously, with five wides from Lonwabo Tsotsobe but he soon settled and took the wicket of Ahmed Shehzad. Nasir Jamshed and Mohammed Hafeez tried to stitch a partnership, and didn’t allow South Africa’s main pacer Dale Steyn to take any wickets. However, the turning point of the match was when Jamshed got out, with Duminy taking a splendid catch of his own bowling. That increased the par D/L score and unfortunately for Pakistan, they fell short by runs.