The South Africa v Pakistan encounter of the ICC World Cup 2023, which was played at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on October 27, gave fans what they needed. Drama till the last ball as the match proved to be like a pendulum, swinging towards both sides with every delivery.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and chose to bat first. He and Saud Shakeel scored half-centuries as Pakistan scored 270 runs. Shadab Khan made 43, while Mohammad Nawaz also contributed 24 runs to the final Pakistan total.
For South Africa, Tabraiz Shamsi took 4/60 and Marco Jansen took three wickets.
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In response, South Africa lost Quinton de Kock for 24 and Temba Bavuma got out for 28 runs. Rassie van der Dussen was given out LBW in controversial circumstances for 21 runs. Other batters like Henrich Klaasen (12), David Miller (29), and Marco Jansen (20) got starts, but couldn’t continue.
Aiden Markram was the anchor of the Proteas innings and scored 91 runs with 7 fours and 3 sixes to his name.
However, Pakistan continued to fight and got rid of him to expose the tail. 11 runs were needed by South Africa when Haris Rauf got Lungi Ngidi out caught and bowled off his bowling. But Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj stuck out there and finished the match.
Pakistan would’ve won the match had the on-field umpire agreed to Rauf’s LBW appeal against Shamsi and given him out. Pakistan took the DRS and the ball tracking showed the ball missing the stumps by the barest of margin possible. Shamsi survived on umpire’s call.
This was enough for Keshav Maharaj to finish the match by hitting a four against Mohammad Nawaz in the 48th over as South Africa won by 1 wicket. Shaheen Afridi took 3/45 for Pakistan, while Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim, and Usama Mir took two wickets apiece.
As a result, South Africa has moved to the No. 1 spot in the CWC 2023 points table with 10 points from 6 games and a better net run-rate than India. Pakistan remains in 6th position with 2 wins and 4 points from 6 matches.
The cricket fraternity shared their reactions to one of the closest matches in this World Cup 2023 after they managed to catch their breath.
Here are the posts:
