The Thriller between Pakistan and South Africa which was clinched by Pakistan proved that the ODI has still not lost its grace in international cricket and it can also produce the same thrill and drama like a T20 game.
Pakistan won the game in high pressure situation as they kept their calm till the very end and ended the game on a high knot which now has now leveled the series with both the sides winning two games each and the final match will be the decider of the champion team.
South Africa winning the toss chose to bat and their skipper returned with a very special knock of 92 which helped them reach a very competitive total of 274 adding 94 for the third wicket with AB de Villiers where he scored a boundary less 49 labouring singles and doubles with the skipper.Smith missed his century while he was trying to work Hafeez down the leg side and South Africa just lost their track and momentum from the point forward and Wahab set himself on hattrick by getting rid of Duminy and David Millers ,while Botha helped them to reach to a defendable total.
Chasing 275 would have never been an easy task on a slow track when Pakistan came out to bat with opening pair of Imran Farhat and Hafeez but Farhat was sent to the pavillion pretty soon by Morkel and then came Younis Khan along with Mohammad Hafeez. Hafeez was hitting the ball pretty well and made a blistering 42 off just 29 deliveries before getting out to Dale Steyn.Till then both of them had added 50 runs in just 48 balls for the second wicket which meant that Pakistan was always heading with the required run rate while Younis Khan carried his way to a beautiful half century after his dismissal. There was a kind of imbalance as they were keeping close to the run rate but the wickets were falling in regular intervals.Pakistan came close down to the end of the game when Abdul Razzaq was removed by Morkel in the 47th over when it looked that Razzaq is going to win the game but the game was still not over as Wahab came into bat when it was 31 required of 23 balls and again changed the course of the game but as soon as it was started to look that he will take the game away from South Africa he was finally run-out by Parnell as South Africa is known for their fielding but on the pressure day they fail keep their fielding upto the mark and missed a lot of run-out chances which cost them the game ,as Haider came on to hit the winning runs and Pakistan had again cliched a one wicket thriller against the South Africans.
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