Watch cricket video highlights of Pakistan tour of South Africa 2024. First Twenty/20 between Pakistan and South Africa. Venue of the match will be Durban.
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After missing three years of action for South Africa, George Linde made up for it on one thrilling Kingsmead night with a fantastic all-around display. A heroic Pakistan was beaten by 11 runs after a 24-ball 48 with the bat and 4-21 with the ball. Before a review deprived him that honor but not his uncontested Player-of-the-Match title, the umpire even believed he had a hat-trick in the penultimate over.
Even though he finished with 74 off 62, the captain’s late onslaught was insufficient to reverse the damage of a slow first half of an innings in which he managed just 36 in his first 44 deliveries. Mohammad Rizwan, who faced the opening ball, was there in the last over as his side went down fighting. David Miller’s current form makes it irrelevant that South Africa entered the inaugural Twenty20 International in Durban with a markedly inferior team.
When Shaheen Shah Afridi and Abrar Ahmed dismissed Rassie van der Dussen, Reeza Hendricks, and Matthew Breetzke early in the first innings, Pakistan thought they had made headway. However, a magnificent 40-ball 82 sliced through the first innings like a knife. Heinrich Klaasen had no reluctance to bat first on a genuine, flat Durban track, but Miller made sure the runs continued to flow and Pakistan’s spinners were unable to make the impact they had hoped for.
Despite losing Babar Azam for a duck early on, Saim Ayub gave Pakistan a strong start, but South Africa held them in over the middle overs. Pakistan’s inexperienced middle order was unable to control the asking rate at the other end, and Rizwan found it difficult to get going. It made it possible for South Africa to take regular wickets and get clean overs in through the middle, and suddenly Pakistan was out of overs and hitters.
Pakistan unexpectedly found themselves back in the game after an error in the 17th over by the otherwise outstanding 18-year-old Kwena Maphaka cost them 24 runs. By then, Pakistan had unexpectedly pulled themselves back in, requiring 19 off the last over, while Rizwan was flying, hitting three fours off Ottneil Baartman and two sixes off Maphaka. However, the match ended as a battle when Maphaka, who came back for the twentieth over, had Rizwan top-edge a slower ball.
Pakistan had to pay for their tardiness with the bat early on and their generosity with the ball at the end. South Africa was shrewd enough to exploit it completely. David Miller is known for being a bludgeoner in the middle and late overs. However, Miller entered at No. 4 in an inexperienced team after Shaheen and Abrar had already scored. For the following hour or so, he showed that his timing and technique were on par with his strength.
He took advantage of starting his innings on the powerplay by hitting Shaheen through the covers for another boundary after he had ripped him off the pads to get going. Shortly after the powerplay, he showed off his excellent timing against Sufiyan Muqeem. Miller’s extension of arms and strength at the end of his range destroyed the left-arm wristspinner’s attempt to keep out of his arc by bowling wide of off and spinning it away. The fielder could only watch it soar past his head as he creamed him over the extra-cover boundary.
Two balls later, Muqeem gave it another go, but he received the same treatment with, if it could be said so, even less effort. Miller, who had only just begun, was vicious against spin, hitting Abrar for three consecutive sixes in the ninth over. Like a scythe, he sliced through Pakistan’s innings, adding 82 of South Africa’s 125 runs between his arrival and Shaheen’s eventual hole-out. Since tactics are always evaluated based on results rather than reasoning, Linde made sure that Rizwan’s aggressive death-overs strategy cost Pakistan a lot of money.
The Pakistan skipper sensed an opportunity to bowl South Africa out after Miller fell and Pakistan delivered two more swift hits to cut the score to 141 for 8. Pakistan may have thought that South Africa’s innings would be over by the 19th over, when Shaheen, Abbas Afridi, and Haris Rauf were bowled out. However, Linde managed the strike and Maphaka’s peculiar boundary relieved them of the strain, so that didn’t happen. Muqeem was left to bowl the last over, and his intentions were clear when Linde declined to take a single from the first ball.
Before Linde miscued the final ball to cow corner, Muqeem missed his length on nearly all five of the previous deliveries, with three of them going for sixes. Pakistan had little chance of clearing them out below par, though, as South Africa had jumped to 183. Too many obituaries have been written on the opening of the Mohammad Rizwan-Babar Azam affair to try again. In a fierce chase, those two left while Saim Ayub remained in the dugout, perhaps ending Pakistan’s days of opening with their two reliable anchors.
Both appeared rusty and far slower than was necessary. Babar had the opportunity to fall to Maphaka’s initial pass, but he ended up off the fourth without scoring. With his whole arsenal of strength, style, and bravado on display, Ayub stepped in and showed why he is so effective in the first six. He dominated the rest of the powerplay, hitting seven boundaries in his first 13 balls to reach 31. He holed out to sweeper cover off the second puck he faced after the powerplay, demonstrating his decreased effectiveness as the field stretches out.
However, he had gotten Pakistan off to a great start and left one wondering how much more he could have done if he had been there from the beginning. It became clear in the end how important each run would have been.