Cricket

South Africa rise to the top by the barest of margins in thriller against Pakistan

South Africa

Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj celebrate South Africa’s nail-biting win•ICC/Getty Images

While South Africa’s batting performance may have been jittery, their bowling effort – their weaker discipline so far in the tournament – was impressive on a flat surface. After Pakistan opted to bat, it took incisive use of the short ball from Jansen and Coetzee and the smart selection of Shamsi, who turned the ball both ways, to dent their run-scoring.

Ngidi returned from a knee niggle that had kept him out of the Bangladesh game to open the bowling alongside Jansen and the pair began with a short ball barrage. One of Jansen’s went over both Abdullah Shafique and Quinton de Kock’s heads for byes, while another from Ngidi, went to point boundary but South Africa’s relentless approach did not take long to pay off. In Jansen’s third over, Shafique holed out off Ngidi at deep square leg.

In Jansen’s next over, South Africa inserted Heinrich Klaasen at a deep-slip/short-third and Jansen went full and wide. Imam-ul-Haq reached for it, edged and was caught to leave Pakistan 38 for 2 in the seventh over.

Markram was introduced in the eighth over – presumably for the match-up with Babar who has not been at his best against spin – and Rizwan continued living dangerously. He chipped Markram wide of cover and batted on to bring up his 2000th ODI run and then hit boundaries of Jansen, Markram and Maharaj to get Pakistan going.

With spin at both ends, Rizwan and Babar built steadily and their third-wicket stand grew to 49 before Bavuma called on Coetzee. Used in the enforcer role, Coetzee was up at 140kph and around the helmet from the get-go and it did not take too long for him to have an impact. His fifth ball was a bouncer which Rizwan top-edged to de Kock.

Pakistan then promoted Iftikhar Ahmed to No.5 for the first time in his career, ahead of Saud Shakeel who is reputed for playing spin well. He scored only five runs off the first 14 balls he faced, then hit Maharaj over cow corner for six, Ngidi over midwicket for four and then, just after the halfway stage, failed to read a Shamsi googly and hit it to Klaasen at mid-on.

All the while, Babar was ticking along and he went on to bring up a third half-century of this World Cup campaign off 64 balls. Pakistan needed him to bat on but a review from de Kock, who thought he had Babar caught down the legside off a Shamsi legbreak, ended his vigil.

Shakeel and Shadab combined for an 84-run sixth-wicket stand as South Africa’s death bowling struggles appeared to come early. Runs came off the spinners and Coetzee, who eventually broke the stand with a signature bumper. Shadab tried to clear midwicket but gave Maharaj a simple catch. Fifteen balls later, Shakeel threw his beat at a Shamsi delivery close to off stump and nicked off. Pakistan had already used their finisher earlier in the innings and the impact of how far that backfired was clear when neither Afridi nor Mohammad Nawaz came off and Pakistan were bowled out with 20 balls to spare.

More to follow …