Series tied 1-1, South Africa beat Pakistan by 8 wickets; series leveled 1-1 – News-Patiala Punjabi

South Africa beat Pakistan by 8 wickets in the second ODI played in Faisalabad. With this victory, the three-match ODI series was leveled at 1-1. Pakistan scored 269/9 while batting first. In reply, the Proteas reached the target in the 41st over thanks to Quinton de Kock (123*) and Tony Di Giorgi (76).

Pakistan got off to a poor start. Electing to bat after winning the toss, Pakistan had Fakhar Zaman caught by de Kock on his third ball. Corbin Bosch then got Babar Azam out lbw, though he escaped a review. However, Berger had Babar caught by Donovan Ferreira in the slips in the very next over. Four balls later, Mohammad Rizwan was also bowled. Pakistan’s score in the fifth over was 3 wickets for just 22 runs

Then Nawaz took charge. Sam Ayub and Salman Agha then put on a fourth-wicket partnership, but their strike rate remained very low. Even after Ayub’s dismissal, the run rate did not increase. In the end, Mohammad Nawaz scored runs quickly. He hit both Fortune and Bosh for sixes, taking Pakistan past the 250 mark.

A 153-run partnership between de Kock and Tony De Giorgi helped South Africa achieve the target with the loss of just two wickets. Chasing a target of 270, South Africa achieved the target by just two wickets. Openers Luwan-Dre Pretorius and de Kock added 81 runs for the first wicket. Pretorius attacked Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Wasim with aggressive batting, but he too was dismissed for 32 off 31 balls. De Kock then put on a formidable 153-run partnership with Tony Di Giorgi to completely fail the Pakistani bowlers. De Kock led his team to victory with 59 balls to spare and remained unbeaten on 123*. Di Giorgi also scored a brilliant 85 runs. In the end, captain Matthew Breitzke stayed with de Kock on 18*.