LAHORE (Khyber News): Pumped up by their nail biting three runs victory in the first T20I, Pakistan cricket team will be aiming to take 2-0 lead when they take on South Africa in the second T20I today at Gaddafi Stadium at 6:00 pm (PST).
The Test series triumph as well as the victory in the first T20I has surely boosted the morale of Pakistan team and players, who will be more eager to excel against Proteas in the second T02I, aiming at taking unassailable 2-0 lead. Muhammad Rizwan was the star in both Test series as well as in the first T20I, and hopefully, he will further deliver against the visiting side.
South Africa finished the first T20I just one hit away from a win, this was all just because of failure of their middle order. If the Proteas can take their game to the next level, the team has a good chance of registering victories in the remaining T20Is. The tourists were off to good start in the first T20I with Babar Azam run-out for a duck on the second ball of the match. But Rizwan kept one side intact and helped his side post a decent total of 169 runs.
Haider Ali played a few shots and accompanied Rizwan, but he failed to prolong his innings and add some valuable runs in his team’s total. Hussain Talat looked good but he couldn’t play well the spin of Tabraiz Shamsi, who was the pick of South Africa bowlers and gave away just 20 runs from his four overs while picking up one wicket.
Apart from Shamsi, Andile Phehlukwayo bowled well for South Africa and finished with figures of 2-33.
Pakistan cricket captain Babar Azam showered praise on wicketkeeper batsman, Muhammad Rizwan for his century (104) and termed his innings the key factor for home teams three run win over South Africa in the first T20 international here on Thursday night. “Rizwan demonstrated his batting skills in a great way and played an impressive knock which helped the team to build a good total,” he said.
Babar said Rizwan played according to the game plan to end Pakistan team’s innings on a good note taking it from start to end. “Rizwan played superbly and aided the fellow colleagues and cracked sixes and boundaries which helped us to get a good total.”
Babar said bowlers gave runs more than expectations in the power play but in the end fast bowlers bowled well and took the control of the match in the last four overs. “Rizwan put up an outstanding performance and I greet him on scoring a fine century at home ground,” said the skipper.
He pointed that that team was helped by spinners, especially Usman Qadir, son of legendary late spinner Abdul Qadir, who took two important wickets to breakthrough South Africa innings at a stage when its batsmen were on control of run hunt. “I would say it was collective team effort which led us to a success and I look forward to similar performance in the coming two back to back games,” he asserted.
