South Africa defeated Pakistan by just one wicket at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai and moved to the number one spot in the points table. Chasing 271 to win, the Proteas were helped by Aiden Markram’s 90. However, they were reduced to 260/9, needing 11 runs to win with only one wicket in hand when Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi held their nerves to see their team through.
Pak Captain Babar Azam said, ‘We are very close, we did not finish well. Very disappointing for the whole team. We fought back very well. In the batting we were 10-15 short. The fast bowlers and spinners fought well but unfortunately it was not to be. It is part of the game, in DRS it is part of the game. Had he given it out, it would have favored us. We have an opportunity to win this and stay in the race but not to be. We will try our best in the next 3 matches and put our efforts and play for Pakistan. Let’s see where we will stand after that.
SA skipper Temba Bavuma, saud, It is chaos at the moment. The guys are enjoying the moment. The guys are picking up Shamsi. Chaos at the moment. Nail-biting finish, if you are a South African fan, you will be happy. Pressure with us chasing, we haven’t done well to rectify that. It will be easier to have those conversations especially after the win. You need to have the guys in the best situations and truly speak out as to what they were thinking. Hard to say now but those conversations will happen. It is something we have spoken and something which has been thrown about. We have a blueprint when we bat first, we can’t say with conviction we have that when we are chasing. We want to be a lot more clinical with the bat. That’s nice to hear. KG (Rabada) is good, it was more precautionary, he is experiencing lower back issues and a couple of days rest before New Zealand and he will be in contention. Ecstatic for Shamsi, started with the ball, came in when conditions were helpful and then with the bat. [i]We have seen Shamsi gloating on social media about his batting. It won’t stop for the next two weeks[i] but it’s nice for a senior guy like Shamsi to come out with the bat like that.