Johannesburg — South Africa. Rain. A World Cup game in Sydney. Well at least this one didn’t see them get bounced out of the tournament as was the case 30 years ago.
The Proteas still have their future in the tournament in their hands. They have to beat the Netherlands in Adelaide on Sunday.
The Proteas will look back a couple of bad fielding errors just after the mid-innings drinks break during Pakistan’s innings that changed the momentum of the match.
The Proteas dominated the first half of the Pakistan innings, thanks to more excellent seam bowling from Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell and Anrich Nortje.They relentlessly attacked the stumps and made good use of changes in pace to bamboozle Pakistan’s top order.
By the end of the seventh over Pakistan were 43/4, and desperately in need of a partnership. That duly arrived, with some consolidation before the drinks break from Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz, who shared a partnership of 52 runs for the fifth wicket.
The momentum of the innings changed in the 12th over following a miss-field by Tabraiz Shamsi on the third man boundary, when what should have been an easy stop resulting in a single, turned into a four for Nawaz. In the next over, Aiden Markram provided Nawaz with another gift mis-judging the flight of the ball, as he charged off the long-off boundary, turning an easy catch into a boundary.
Pakistan scored 106 runs between the 11th and 19th overs, with some prodigious hitting from Iftikhar who scored 51, off 35 balls with three fours and two sixes. Shadab Khan bashed 52 off 22 balls, the second fastest half century for Pakistan in T20 Internationals, with three fours and four sixes.
In worsening conditions because of rain the error count in the field mounted for the Proteas, with Markram and Parnell dropping catches in the last two overs.
Pakistan understandably had all the momentum at the interval and Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw in his first two overs to lift their belief still further.
There was a return to form for skipper Temba Bavuma who played some wonderful shots while scoring 36 off 19 balls. However his wicket, along with Markram’s, in the eighth over to Shadab switched the match decisively in Pakistan’s favour. The rain halted the match an over later, which meant the required total after the break was always going to be tricky.
Needing 73 runs off 30 balls, Heinrich Klaasen and Tristan Stubbs gave the Proteas some hope, taking 26 off the first two overs after the rain, but a brilliant over of yorkers from Mohammad Wasim jr and then excellent slower balls from Naseem Shah in the next over snuffed that hope out.
IOL Sport