Abrar Ahmed destroyed South African battingImage Credit source: PTI
After the T20 series, Pakistan also defeated South Africa in the ODI series. In the last match of the series, Pakistan defeated South Africa by 7 wickets in a one-sided fashion and won the series 2-1. In the last match of the series in Faisalabad, the South African team, batting first, got bundled out for only 143 runs and the reason for this was spinner Abrar Ahmed, who destroyed the South African innings by trapping them with his spin in the middle overs. After this, Pakistan won easily with Saim Ayub’s quick half-century.
In view of the Test series against India, South Africa had rested many senior players including its captain Temba Bavuma in this series. Despite this, Pakistan had to work hard to win this series. They had won the first match of the series but in the second match South Africa won by 8 wickets. However, in the last match, Pakistan equalized with South Africa in the same manner and won the series. With this, Shaheen Shah Afridi won his first series as ODI captain.
African batsmen trapped in Abrar’s trap
Opener Quinton de Kock, who played an explosive century in the last match, played a strong innings in this match too and scored a half-century. Luan Dripitorius (39) also gave a good start to the team along with De Kock in the opening. The team had scored 106 runs by losing 2 wickets in 24.2 overs but from here the whole game changed. De Kock (53) was out in the same over and then leg spinner Abrar (4/27), who returned to the team, wreaked havoc. Abrar took 3 wickets in his 2 consecutive overs and then soon gave the fourth wicket. Within no time, South Africa lost 8 wickets for just 37 runs and the entire team collapsed for just 143 runs in 37.5 overs.
Babar failed again, but Saim led to victory
Pakistan also did not have a good start and opener Fakhar Zaman was out on the very second ball. But then Ayub (77) along with Babar Azam took the team beyond 60 runs. However, Babar Azam (27) once again could not play a big innings and this time he was run out after scoring 27 runs. After this, Ayub breathed his last after taking the team closer to victory. Ayub was out in the 24th over, when Pakistan’s score was 130 runs. From here, former captain Mohammad Rizwan (32) and Salman Agha (5) scored the remaining runs and captured the trophy by winning the team by 7 wickets in just 25.1 overs.