Pakistan defeated South Africa. (Photo- PTI)
The first match of the 3-match ODI series between Pakistan and South Africa was played at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. This match was very exciting and in the end Pakistan team managed to win by 2 wickets. In this match, Pakistan’s star batsman Mohammad Rizwan played a match-winning innings. Mohammad Rizwan was stripped of the captaincy of the ODI team even before the start of the series, but it did not affect his game.
South African team collapsed for 263 runs
Pakistan won the toss in this match and decided to bowl first. During this period, the South African team was successful in making a strong start. Luan-Dree Pretorius gave a strong start by scoring 57 runs and Quinton de Kock scored 63 runs. But after this South Africa’s innings faltered. The entire team was all out after scoring 263 runs in 49.1 overs. Matthew Britzke and Corbin Bosch also played good innings. Matthew Britzke contributed 42 runs and Corbin Bosch contributed 41 runs.
On the other hand, Abrar Ahmed was the most successful bowler of Pakistan. He took 3 wickets in his name. At the same time, Naseem Shah also managed to achieve 3 successes. Sam Ayub once again did wonders in bowling and took 2 wickets. Apart from these, Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Shah Afridi managed to take 1 wicket each.
Match winning innings of Mohammad Rizwan
Pakistan also had a good start in reply to 264 runs. Fakhar Zaman scored 45 runs, which included 4 fours and 2 sixes. Sam Ayub also managed to contribute 39 runs. After this Mohammad Rizwan took the innings forward and scored 55 runs on 74 balls. At the same time, Salman Agha also played a strong inning of 62 runs. But Babar Azam once again flopped and lost his wicket after scoring 7 runs. However, somehow Pakistan achieved this target in 49.4 overs at the loss of 8 wickets.
The last overs of this match were very exciting, where South Africa tried its best to make a comeback. Actually, Pakistan had to score only 29 runs in 30 balls to win and they had 6 wickets in their hands. But after this Pakistan’s innings faltered and 4 wickets fell one after the other. Due to which he achieved this target in the last over.