After Pakistan has completed what was required of them today, the country may continue to hold out for an impossible miracle. They have improved significantly to defeat the formidable South African team, therefore maintaining their unbeaten record against the Proteas in the Twenty20 World Cup competition.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, they quickly found themselves in a precarious position at 43 for 4 with the scoreboard. Iftikhar Ahmad and Shadab Khan’s partnership of 82 runs off only 35 balls was the impetus for a spectacular counterattack that was initiated by the pair.
After turning the game around with the bat, Shadab returned to turn the game around with the ball as well, dismissing Bavuma and Markram in three balls right before the rain break. After the number of overs was cut down, that over proved to be the deciding factor, as South Africa found themselves looking at a difficult equation. And with the level of death bowling that Wasim and Naseem displayed, the job at hand was almost difficult to accomplish.
Pakistan’s continued success is astonishing, since the country may lose to Zimbabwe one day and beat South Africa the next. All that could be done was accomplished today, and they even managed to close the NRR deficit with South Africa by a healthy margin. They really hope it rains during the South Africa vs Netherlands match, but for now the prognosis in Adelaide doesn’t appear too bad.
South Africa (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi
Pakistan (Playing XI): Mohammad Rizwan(w), Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah
Twitter Reacts:
And with this win PAK hopes for Semi are still alive. Hopes of India- PAK are still alive. #SAvsPAK https://t.co/mK5fFk7YUj
— BalrajSinghKarakoti 🇮🇳 (@Ballugreat) November 3, 2022
this is really a tight slap to all toxic indian fans who were fans pakistan can't win against South Africa
— CricCrazy 🇵🇰 (@CricCrazy__) November 3, 2022
conditions matter alot, India faced SA at Perth Pak played them in Sydney. Hum bhi jit jate agar match Sydney me hota, aur Miller na khel ra hota.
— LSG 🏏 (@PeterParker7194) November 3, 2022
Against South African C team. Without Miller, Mahraj. Practice match for SA in my books
— 🐎 (@Ben_Poindext3r) November 3, 2022
Clearly a fixed match. First SA dont play two main players. Then they drop so many catches that I lost count, they missed run outs, they misfielded on so many occassions. Then forced umpire to continue playing in the rain. Well Paid PCB
— king Babar Azam (@NO1KLOLFAN) November 3, 2022
The biggest disappointing moment of T20 WorldCup would be when Pakistan will officially get eliminated. No cricket fan would want to see such an exciting team getting eliminated so early from the tournament!
— 𝙸𝙲𝙲 ᵀ²⁰ 🌍𝙲𝚄𝙿 ²⁰²² (@DrPikka) November 3, 2022
Misfield, dropped catches, so many full tosses in the death overs by the proteas. Unbelievable. Hmmm!!!!!
— Khal Drogo🐼 (@natumjanonahum8) November 3, 2022
