Pakistan registered their second win in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 as they defeated the strong South African side at the Sydney Cricket Ground on November 3, 2022, in a crunch match of Group 2. This was a must-win game for Pakistan to keep their hopes of semis qualification alive.

Babar Azam of Pakistan won the toss and chose to field first. Mohammad Haris came into the XI for Fakhar Zaman. South Africa also left out David Miller as a precaution due to injury and Heinrich Klaasen came in for him.

Babar Azam (6) and Mohammad Rizwan (4) failed once again to score substantially, while Shan Masood made 2 runs. But Mohammad Haris gave impetus to Pakistan's innings with 28 off 11 balls with 3 sixes and 2 fours.

Then Iftikhar Ahmed struck 51 in 35 balls and Mohammad Nawaz (28) contributed as well. But the huge push to their innings came from Shadab Khan who made 52 in 22 balls as he struck 4 sixes and 3 fours as Pakistan posted 185/9 in 20 overs.  

Anrich Nortje continued his good form with the ball, taking 4/41 in 4 overs.

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South Africa started poorly with Quinton de Kock (0) and Rilee Rossouw (7) falling early to Shaheen Afridi. But Temba Bavuma (36 in 19 balls) and Aiden Markram (20) brought South Africa back into the game.

Shadab Khan then struck twice removing both the scorers and then the rain came down to halt the proceedings. South Africa at 69/4 in 9 overs were 15 runs behind the DLS par score when the rain came.

The revised target for South Africa was 142 runs in 14 overs and they needed 73 to win off the last five overs. Pakistani bowlers didn’t let their guard down as South Africa finished on 108/9 and lost by 33 runs via the DLS method. 

With this win, Pakistan moved to the third spot in the points table with 4 points from 4 matches, behind South Africa (5 points from 4 matches) and India, who are at the top with 6 points from 4 matches.

November 6 will see South Africa face off against the Netherlands and Pakistan taking on Bangladesh, both at Adelaide, and India clashing with Zimbabwe at Melbourne.

BRIEF SCORES:

PAK 185/9 (S KHAN 52, I AHMED 51; A NORTJE 4/41) defeated SA 108/9 (in 14 overs) (T BAVUMA 36; S AFRIDI 3/14, S KHAN 2/16) by 33 runs via DLS method.