South Africa edged out Pakistan by one wicket in a thriller at Chepauk in Chennai on Friday (October 27) in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Until today, there was no such close finish in the tournament which disappointed many but there will be very few complaints after tonight's game.
Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first, as Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel struck half-centuries, with Shadab Khan contributing 43 as Pakistan were bowled out for 270 in 46.4 overs. Tabraiz Shamsi took 4/60, while Marco Jansen picked up three wickets.
South Africa got off to a aggressive start but Quinton de Kock (28) and Temba Bavuma (24) failed to convert their starts. Vice-captain Aiden Markram batted responsibly to score 91, but wickets kept falling at regular intervals to keep Pakistan interested.
Once Markram perished to a needless shot off Usama Mir, Pakistan smelled victory with 21 still needed by South Africa. Gerald Coetzee and Lungi Ngidi also fell soon after, leaving the last pair of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi 11 runs to get.
The pair batted quite brilliantly to play out the three Pakistan seamers and were left with five runs to get from three overs. Babar Azam had the choice to make between Mohammad Nawaz and Usama Mir, who had two wickets to his name, but he surprisingly backed the former who had not bowled that well in the game.
Nawaz conceded a single to Shamsi off the first ball, and then bowled a poor ball to Maharaj down the leg-side, which he calmly placed for a boundary to finish off the game for South Africa.
While Maharaj and Shamsi celebrated their heroic win, Babar was seen giving a mouthful to Nawaz as he didn't seem pleased with how easily the left-arm spinner executed the delivery which got hit for the winning runs.
South Africa now sit at the top of the points table with 10 points from 6 games, while Pakistan have just 4 points from the same number of games.
