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Proteas face tough task

Centurion - Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez tore apart the South African bowlers when the two sides clashed in their only T20 encounter here at SuperSport Park on Saturday.

Live scorecard

Pakistan set a formidable target of 196 after winning the toss and opting to bat first.

After a dismal Test series, Hafeez saw the ball like a tennis ball and walloped some shots resembling tennis slams for his brilliant 86 off 51 balls. His innings, which included nine fours and four sixes, came to an unfortunate end when he smashed Rory Kleinveldt for another four but his back foot slid onto his stumps and dislodged his bails.

Pakistan started with aggression and had the run rate at 9.9 after the first ten overs.

The opening pair of Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shehzad set the pace with the latter smacking two sixes before he was run out on 46. He faced 25 deliveries and also hit six fours.

The wicket brought Hafeez to the crease but it had no effect on the team’s momentum.

Hafeez reached his half-century off 30 balls and achieved his highest T20 score - his previous being 71 against Zimbabwe, in Harare.

He also became the first Pakistan batsman to reach the milestone of 1 000 T20 runs.

Faf du Plessis tried all his bowlers and had to call on his ‘death’ bowlers midway through the innings.

Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who took eight for one off his first two overs, came back in the ninth over to try and peg down the batsmen but to no avail.

Once Hafeez departed, at 170 for four, in the 17th over, the visitors could not finish off the innings in quite the same fashion they had started and ended their innings on 195 for seven.

Kleinveldt picked up two wickets for 27 and Chris Morris two for 35.

Teams:

South Africa:


Faf du Plessis (captain), Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, AB de Villiers (wicketkeeper), Rory Kleinveldt, David Miller, Chris Morris, Justin Ontong, Robin Peterson, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Kyle Abbott

Pakistan:

Mohammad Hafeez (captain), Ahmed Shehzad, Junaid Khan, Kamran Akmal (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Irfan, Nasir Jamshed, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul

Umpires: Johan Cloete and Shaun George (both RSA). TV umpire: Adrian Holdstock (RSA).

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL).


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