ICC Champions Trophy: Pakistan beats South Africa via D/L method
Pakistan defeated South Africa by 19 runs via D/L method due to heavy rain.
The Proteas suffered their first defeat of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy against Pakistan at Edgbaston.
South Africa, the top ranked one-day international (ODI) team in the world, were expected to beat Pakistanwith ease, a team who are ranked eighth. However, the Central Asia squad achieved victory via the D/L method.
Poor batting effort
Proteas’ captain, AB de Villiers won the toss and decided to bat first.
David Miller showed some impressive skills as he registered his 10th ODI fifty, achieving an unbeaten 75 off 104 balls.
Aside from Miller, the South African side struggled when batting.
Captain AB de Villers was dismissed without facing a single ball, departing for a golden duck.
However, it wasn’t completely the fault of South Africa’s batsmen. Pakistan’s pacers did an outstanding job. Hasan Ali achieved figures of 3/18, while fellow pacers Imad Wasim and Junaid Khan returned 2/20 and 2/53 respectively.
After completing 50 overs, the Proteas achieved a very modest 220 runs for eight wickets.
Pakistan charge
Pakistan needed to reach South Africa’s 220 in order to stay alive in the competition.
The Central Asia team replaced opener Ahmed Shehzad with debutant Fakhar Zaman, who helped himself to 31 out of 23 balls before Proteas’ Morkel intervened.
Having completed 27 overs, with 119 runs over three wickets for Pakistan, the umpires called the covers on as rain affected the match.
After a couple of hours, officials decided to call off the game as heavy rain continued.
The winner of the bout was decided via Duckworth and Lewis calculation and Pakistan’s Hasan Ali was named man of the match.
“It was a team effort. I stuck to my plan and we all stuck to our plan. I dropped a catch in the last game, so I knew I had to cover that. I did it nicely,” said Ali.
Semi-final hopes for both teams
With two points each, both South Africa and Pakistan still have hopes to reach the semi-finals.
The Proteas will need to defeat India on Sunday, while Pakistan will need to do so against Sri Lanka on Monday.