T20 Wold Cup 2022: Pakistan beat South Africa by 33 runs

Sydney, The Gulf Observer: Pakistan defeated South Africa by 33 runs in the do-or-di match of the T20 World Cup on Thursday.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first and posted 185 runs on the board.

In reply, South Africa only managed to score 108 for loss of 9 wickets in rain-hit match.

Shadab Khan grabbed the player of the match award with his all-round performance. He scored a brisk half-century and took two important wickets in his first over.

Middle order batters Iftikhar Ahmed and vice-captain slammed half-tons and give Pakistan a big total after top order failed.

Team Pakistan, who is on the brink of elimination from the mega event, again failed to start smoothly as openers were dismissed in the powerplay.

Flamboyant batter Rizwan falls prey in the first over to Wayne Parnell. Anrich Nortje then dismissed Mohammad Haris and Pakistani skipper Babar Azam was later dismissed by Lungi Ngidi.

Iftikhar Ahmed and Nawaz gained a little momentum in the middle before Tabriz Shamsi outclassed the latter.

Babar-led squad earlier played three games and win only one against the Netherlands, the team with top batters failed to impress fans and is placed fifth in Group 2 with just two points.

Pakistan will take on Bangladesh in their last fixture on coming Sunday.

Team Green is on the verge of getting ruled out of the mega event as even clinching two of the upcoming games won’t be enough to advance as the team has to wait for at least one upset defeat in the last round, either to undefeated South Africa or confident India.

Playing XI

Pakistan: Shaheen Afridi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Babar Azam, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Shan Masood, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Muhammad Rizwan, Khushdil Shah, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Wasim

South Africa: Temba Bavuma, Quinton De Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs