All-round Pakistan complete a huge victory over South Africa, the star performers for Pakistan being Umar Gul and Mohammad Hafeez

South Africa v Pakistan: 2nd T20, Centurion, 3rd March 2013

Result: Pakistan won by 95 runs.

Toss: Pakistan won toss and elected to bat

Teams:

Pakistan
Hafeez, Jamshed, Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan


South Africa
AB de Villiers, H Davids, F du Plessis, JL Ontong, F Behardien, DA Miller, KJ Abbott, CH Morris, RK Kleinveldt, RJ Peterson, LL Tsotsobe


Pakistani Innings

After a torrid Test series, Pakistan would have been hoping to start the innings in confident fashion and they did exactly that, with youngsters Ahmed Shehzad and Nasir Jamshed blowing away the cobwebs.

With a blistering opening stand of 29 in just 3.3 overs, the openers set the tempo for equally belligerent stand between Hafeez and Shehzad of 83 runs after the loss of Jamshed's wicket.

Hafeez had looked to put his Test match troubles behind him and he did exactly that, with an outstanding 86 off 51 balls before he was out hit-wicket. Earlier, Ahmed Shehzad had been run-out for 46 off 25 balls after playing a number of blistering drives and pull shots.

The remaining batsmen, Umar Akmal (11), Shoaib Malik (7), Kamran Akmal (1), Umar Gul (1) did not contribute any significant runs, but a brief cameo from Shahid Afridi, who scored 19 off just 13 runs, including 14 off the final over, ensured that Pakistan reached 195/7 from the 20 overs.

Fall of Wickets
1-29 (Nasir Jamshed, 3.3 ov)
2-112 (Ahmed Shehzad, 11.1 ov), 
3-155 (Umar Akmal, 14.4 ov)
4-170 (Mohammad Hafeez, 16.3 ov)
5-171 (Shoaib Malik, 16.5 ov)
6-174 (Kamran Akmal, 17.6 ov)
7-190 (Umar Gul, 19.4 ov)


South African innings

South Africa walked out in the middle with a tall order on their hands. However, with the average 1st innings score of being 199 at this ground, South Africa would be confident of chasing 196. Plenty of action happened straight away in the first two overs. Kamran Akmal potentially dropping AB de Villiers, although it was given a wide so didn’t matter much. AB de Villiers then hitting an unbelievable six over the covers and Junaid Khan striking the first blow, outfoxing Davids with a slower ball.

South Africa then continued the onslaught and amassed 48 in 4 overs, De Villiers being the one attacking relentlessly. Umar Gul was then brought in the attack to stop this charge from the South Africans and straight away struck to remove Faf du Plessis. This time Kamran Akmal somehow managed to hang on to it. On the very next bowl Gul struck again and Morris was gone first ball. Gul got a third wicket in the over (although not on the hattrick bowl) and this time Justin Ontong was gone, plumb in front.

Suddenly South Africa were reduced to 51 for 4 after 5 overs. De Villiers was the key wicket now in this match. Mohammad Irfan removed the danger man though with a brilliant yorker in the 6th over. Half of the South African side was already back in the hut with not even 6 overs been completed yet in the innings. 

Umar Gul continued to take wickets, as he struck again first bowl in his second over, with Shehzad taking a brilliant catch at backward point! South Africatried to consolidate, but with required creeping up South Africahad to do something. No respite came South Africa’s way though, as Mohammad Hafeez struck in the 10th over to remove David Miller. South Africa, at the half way mark was 67/7 and needed something special in order to win this match. That something did happen for a short while in the form of Kleinveldt, who took both Ajmal and Hafeez to absolute cleaners, but Hafeez eventually emerged victorious, as he removed Kleinveldt. The very next ball, captain Hafeez struck again and removed Peterson caught at short fine-leg. 

Umar Gul returned in the attack to try and get a five-wicket haul and he did get it, as he removed Kyle Abott with a bouncer. Pakistan completed a comprehensive win over South Africa and never let the latter in the game. Mohammad Hafeez and Umar Gul were the stars of this match, as both gave brilliant performances. 

Fall of wickets

1-20 (Davids, 1.6 ov)
2-50 (du Plessis, 4.2 ov), 
3-50 (Morris, 4.3 ov)
4-51 (Ontong, 4.6 ov)
5-53 (de Villiers, 5.4 ov)
6-53 (Behardien, 6.1 ov)
7-67 (Miller, 9.6 ov), 
8-98 (Kleinveldt, 11.4 ov)
9-98 (Peterson, 11.5 ov)
10-100 (Abbott, 12.2 ov)

Summary

Pakistan was looking to amends in the shorter version of the game, after a dismal test series against South Africa and they did just that. Pakistanwon the toss and elected to bat first and started of positively and had their foot on the accelerator through the innings. The visitors had amassed over a 100 runs in the first 10 overs with the loss of only 1 wicket and looked like they were going to finish with over 200 runs. South Africafought hard and managed to restrict Pakistanto 195 runs, which was still a huge total. 

South Africa started off very aggressively and took Pakistan to the cleaners in the first four overs, AB de Villiers in particular playing some unbelievable strokes. Umar Gul had other plans though and took 3 wickets in the fifth over and following Pakistan kept on striking at regular intervals and never let South Africain the game. Pakistan won by 95 runs, with Umar Gul being the pick of the bowlers and ending up with figures of 6 runs for 5 wickets in 2.2 overs.