Babar Azam slammed a magnificent century and Pakistan almost botched up the chase against South Africa despite needing only three runs in the final over.
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Babar Azam had scored his 13th ODI century. His 177-run stand with Imam-ul-Haq had put Pakistan on course in the first ODI against South Africa in Centurion. South Africa’s 273/6, boosted by Rassie van der Dussen’s 123 was in danger of being chased down easily. However, both Babar and Imam fell in quick succession. Pakistan had a mini-collapse of four wickets for 17 runs. Mohammad Rizwan and Shadab Khan both steadied the ship and Pakistan needed three runs off the final over. Andile Phehlukwayo got rid of Shadab and suddenly, Pakistan needed three off three balls. Faheem Ashraf kept his nerve and Pakistan got over the line by three wickets.
The near-choke in the final over rekindled memories of Pakistan’s horror final over loss against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2014. In that match, Pakistan needed two runs off the last over. Incredibly, Glenn Maxwell dismissed Sohail Tanvir and Mohammad Irfan and did not score a single run. The double-wicket maiden resulted in Pakistan losing that match by one run. Luckily, seven years later, there would be no repeat.
Pakistan had chosen to bowl and they had South Africa on the ropes at 55/4. However, van der Dussen and Miller stitched a brilliant 116-run partnership, with the left-handed Miller hitting 50. van der Dussen then shared a crucial 64-run stand with Phehlukwayo as South Africa recovered to 273/6. van der Dussen’s maiden century helped South Africa recover in style.
In contrast, Pakistan’s chase was fluent right from the beginning. Despite Kagiso Rabada getting rid of Fakhar Zaman cheaply, Babar led from the front but the finishing did not go according to the plan.
Speaking after the match, Imam ul Haq admitted that both he and Babar should have finished the chase off. ‘If you want to win big tournaments and become a top three team… it’s not as if we don’t talk about this in our meetings, it gets discussed, that if your top three get set in white-ball, then in other teams they don’t just make 100, they get 150. That is what we’re trying to do, like Babar [Azam] and I were set today, we should finish the game. We were playing an ODI after a long time. We want to learn from our mistakes and turn these 70s and 80s into match winning knocks and turn a win like this into a seven- or six-wicket win,” Imam said.
The second match of the three-ODI series will take place in Johannesburg on April 4. The three-match ODI series will be followed by a four-match Twenty20 International series that will be played in both Johannesburg and Centurion.
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