sa vs pak t20

In the first T20 match against Pakistan, South Africa’s left-arm spinner George Linde performed stunningly with bat and ball. He scored 48 runs just off 24 balls in batting and took 4 wickets with the ball. He closely missed his hat-trick.

South Africa won the toss and opted to Bat first. Their opening batters did not perform well. Reeza Hendricks made 8 runs off 9 balls and Rassie van der Dussen went on Duck. Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed him in the inning’s first over. One down Batsman Matthew Breetzke also went in the pavilion early. David Miller is looking in the form as he played a magical inning of 82 runs off 40 balls faced, including 8 sixes and 4 fours. He played with a strike rate of more than 200. He slapped three sixes in the 10th over. Everyone knows when Miller starts, he never stops, just like this match.

Then George Linde came into action to support David Miller. He scored 48 runs off 24 balls faced, including 4 sixes and 3 fours, with a strike rate of 200. They ensured to set a tough target as they made 183-9 off their 20 overs, which is quite enough to defeat Pakistan. This is the 11th-highest total of T20 in Kingsmead, Durban. The highest total of T20 on this ground is 226-6 by Australia in 2023 against South Africa.

Pakistan faced an early blow as Babar Azam dismissed for a Duck. Despite the loss of an early wicket left-handed batter, Saim Ayub gave a quite good start to Pakistan. As he is playing 200 plus strike rate. His wicket triggered a scoreboard slowdown as South Africa’s spinners, Peter and Linde maintained pressure in the middle overs. Linde bowls nicely as he misses his Hat trick, the ball hits Haris Rauf’s front pad but unfortunately, it misses the leg stump.

Pakistan’s inexperienced middle order looked struggling against left-arm spinner George Linde. He took 4-21 in four overs. Linde made a challenging situation for Pakistan to chase the Target. Pakistan’s captain, Muhammad Rizwan fights alone as he smashed 74 runs off 62 balls but his strike rate was quite slow. Most of the Pakistani batters got out on a single-digit score. Pakistan failed to chase the target and made 172-8 in 20 overs. South Africa won by 11 runs.

David Miller and George Linde’s all-round performance led South Africa to Win.

While South Africa’s Test team is playing against Sri Lanka in Gqeberha, South Africa, another group of players is preparing for a T20 series against Pakistan that will start today.

Pakistan will play against South Africa. There is a three-match T20 series starting today. South Africa has just won a Delight Test match against Sri Lanka in Gqeberha, to keep themselves alive in the WTC final race. There will be no T20 World Cup in 2025. SA’s main focus is on test matches due to the WTC final. Heinrich Klaasen will lead South Africa in the T20 series against Pakistan.

Pakistan’s team recently played a T20 and an ODI series against Zimbabwe where they won both of the series. Left-hand batter Saim Ayab and spinner Sufiyan Muqeem performed well leading Pak towards win.  Pakistan had rested their main players including Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afraid, and captain Muhammad Rizwan in the Zimbabwe tour. Salman Ali Agha played the role of Captaincy in that series. Before that, they were in Australia, where they lost the T20 series 3-0 but won an ODI series 2-1. Pakistan’s main focus is on white-ball cricket because they are official hosts of the Champions Trophy is just ahead over two months.

Remember, SA hasn’t won any single bilateral series in the T20 format throughout the last few series. Draw 1-1 against Ireland, whitewashed by West Indies, and in other series, they didn’t perform well. South African white-ball coach Rob Walter has called up fast bowler Anrich Nortje and left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi for the T20 series to increase their Strength. They both were part of South Africa’s T20 WorldCup team where they helped the team to reach in Final.

pak T20 Squad

1. Muhammad Rizwan (Captain)
2. Baber Azam
3. Haris Rauf
4. Jahandad Khan
5.  Mohammad Abbas Afridi
6. Mohammad Hasnain
7. Mohammad Irfan Khan
8. Omair Bin Yousuf
9. Saim Ayub
10. Salman Ali Agha
11. Shaheen Shah Afridi
12. Sufyan Muqeem
13. Tayyab Tahir
14. Usman Khan
15. Abrar Ahmed

SA T20 Squad

1. Heinrich Klaasen (captain)
2. Ottneil Baartman
3. Matthew Breetzke
4. David Miller
5. Anrich Nortje
6. Nqaba Peter
7. Ryan Rickelton
8. Tabraiz Shamsi
9. Andile Simelane
10. Rassie van der Dussen
11. Kwena Maphaka
12. George Linde
13. Patrick Kruger
14.  Reeza Hendricks
15. Donovan Ferreira