Undergoing their second warm-up match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistan, despite being outclassed with the bat, had to lose the contest after South Africa portrayed supremacy whilst chasing.
SA won the toss and opted to bowl first. It looked they lost the grip initially as the bowling line-up conceded unwanted runs following the majestic hits from the men in green surpassing the boundaries.
The score, however, looked pompous with the assistance of Fakhar Zaman's 52 off 28, Asif Ali's 32 off 18, and Shoaib Malik's 28 off 20 including decent contributions by rest of the batters but SA, once looking least favorites to reach the chase, touched the feat tearing all the barriers in the way. The men in green failed to defend the third-best score of the T20 World Cup warm-up matches following their bowlers' downfall.
It is pertinent to mention that the highest score of the warm-up campaign was set up by England versus India as they added 188/5. Despite the plenty of runs, Virat Kohli and co comfortably trailed the target in 19 overs on Monday. However, the feat was later overtaken by unexpected Afghanistan, who conquered the West Indies bowlers during their Wednesday's warm-up match. Surpassing just a run, they totaled 189 setting up warm-up's target of 190 runs for the opponents to chase.
On one hand, the pitches of the UAE continue to show their support for the batters but on the other hand, bowlers seem frequently failing despite a few serving as a blow to handy opponents' batters. None can be a better example than recently coiled up Pak vs SA. During the game's first inning, Bavuma's bowlers could pick 6 wickets but yielded runs in abundance.
Later, when Babar Azam and chaps stepped on the field to chase, the bowling dominant side had the worst of the bummers. The Leggie, Imad Wasim, and the seamer, Shaheen Shah Afridi picked two SA's batters for each conceding 19 and 30 runs dispatching three, four overs respectively. But the rest of the bowlers had a stroke of bad luck picking none and conceding a pile of runs.
The unexpected downfall of Pakistan, cited up by Rassie Van Der Dussen, needs a lot of debate. The power-hitter smashed 101* off 51 balls troubling the green's bowlers. Dussen was accompanied by the skipper's crucial add-up of 46 coming from 42 balls. The right-handed, top-order batter turned out to be threatening - the game could have belonged to Pakistan or could have dragged till super over with the scores getting leveled by the end.
A full ball by Hasan Ali, on middle, was flicked to the vacant mid-wicket region by Dussen for a six to finish it off in a style on the last ball, bringing his smokey century and victory for South Africa by six wickets.
Also, see:
T20 World Cup warm-up matches: Pakistan revenge West Indies
