Pakistan suffered a 55-run defeat against the second-ranked South African team in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, October 28. The Salman Ali Aga-led side produced a disappointing performance to hand the Donovan Ferreira-led visitors a 0-1 lead.
South African opener Reeza Hendricks scored 60 off 40 balls, which included five fours and a six, while Corbin Bosch produced a career-best performance of 4 for 14 in the series opener. The second T20 match will be held in Lahore on Friday, while the third and final match will be held at the same venue on Saturday.
Reeza Hendricks scored a half-century in South Africa’s innings
After being sent in to bat, South Africa scored 194 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. Quinton de Kock gave a great start to the visiting team by scoring 23 runs in 13 balls, while Tony De Zorzi gave the team momentum in the middle overs by playing an explosive inning of 33 runs in just 16 balls.
George Linde scored 36 runs from 22 balls, which helped the total move closer to 200. South Africa kept Pakistan’s bowlers under constant pressure throughout the innings.
For Pakistan, Mohammad Nawaz was excellent with the ball and took 3 wickets for 26 runs in his four overs. Saim Ayub also made an impact by taking two important wickets, including an early breakthrough during the powerplay.
However, the rest of the bowling attack failed to stop the flow of runs. Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah managed to take one wicket each but gave away more than 11 runs per over.
Corbin Bosch records career-best stats while defending goal
In the run chase, Lizard Williams provided the first breakthrough by dismissing Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan (24 off 19). Babar Azam, who returned to the T-20 team, was out for zero on two balls.
Leading by 31 runs without loss, Pakistan suffered a dramatic collapse and were all out for 139 in 18.1 overs. Mohammad Nawaz offered brief resistance with a quickfire 36 off 20 balls, but the target proved too difficult for a disciplined South African bowling unit.
Corbin Bosch destroyed Pakistan’s middle and lower order, while George Linde took 3 wickets for 31 runs. Lizaad Williams and Lungi Ngidi also grabbed important wickets. South Africa won by 55 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
We just need to make proper batting shifts – Pakistan captain Salman Ali Aga
Pakistan captain Salman Ali Aga admitted that a batting collapse led to their defeat in the opening T20 match. He admitted that while the bowlers recovered well after a poor start, the batting unit failed to build significant partnerships in the middle overs.
“We started well. As far as bowling is concerned, we didn’t start well, but we got things back. In terms of batting, we are losing a lot of wickets in the middle and we need to fix that and we need to make changes quicker than last time.” salman ali aga said,
“I think we just need to bat properly. We have to take singles and doubles and build partnerships and right now partnerships are missing in the middle. If we have good partnerships, we can chase these kind of scores. But right now, we are losing a lot of wickets in the middle and that is costing us a game as well.”
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