Pakistan and South African players during their Cricket World Cup 2023 clash© X (formerly Twitter)
Pakistan cricket team’s fielding has been criticised heavily during the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2023 and they once again suffered a comedy of errors during the match against South Africa on Friday. Temba Bavuma played the ball softly towards mid-on and went for a quick single. The fielder Agha Salman collected the ball but Mohammad Rizwan’s call for him to throw it resulted in a wayward throw towards the bowler’s end. The throw was far away from the stumps and it ended up hitting the bowler Mohammad Nawaz who looked in pain as the commentators were left in splits following the incident.
Left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi grabbed four wickets as South Africa bowled out Pakistan for 270.
The 33-year-old finished with figures of 4-60 while paceman Marco Jansen took 3-43 after Pakistan won the toss and batted, looking for a win to revive their World Cup hopes.
Pakistan have lost three of their five matches while South Africa have four wins and one loss.
Middle-order batter Saud Shakeel scored a fighting run-a-ball 52 and skipper Babar Azam a solid 65-ball 50 while Shadab Khan chipped in with an aggressive 36-ball 43.
Poor Nawaz, Agha making sure we’ll get Abrar, Zaman & Chotu inpic.twitter.com/wHWLPfUSmj
— Pakistani 🇵🇰 | FATIMA ka BIRTHDAY!! (maihonPAKISTANI) October 27, 2023
Pakistan can take heart from the fact that South Africa collapsed to an upset defeat against the Netherlands while chasing 246 in Dharamsala last week.
Pakistan would have scored fewer runs had Shakeel and Shadab not lifted them with an 84-run stand for the sixth wicket off 71 balls following Azam’s dismissal at 141.
Shadab hit two sixes and three boundaries while Shakeel’s second fifty in the tournament had seven hits to the rope.
It was Jansen who hit Pakistan early with the wickets of openers Abdullah Shafique (nine) and Imam-ul-Haq (12) in the first seven overs.
Azam added 48 runs for the third wicket with Mohammad Rizwan who made 31 with a six and four boundaries.
The skipper added another 43 for the next wicket with Iftikhar Ahmed who scored 21 with a six and a boundary.
Shamsi dismissed Iftikhar caught at long-on and Azam behind the wicket sweeping to derail the innings until Shakeel and Shadab rebuilt.
Fast bowler Gerald Coetzee broke the stand by dismissing Shadab in the 40th over while Shamsi sent back Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi (two).
(With AFP inputs)
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