First T20: Pakistan beat South Africa by 3 runs Pakistan defeated South Africa by 3 runs in the first T20 match after a thrilling contest.

 First T20: Pakistan beat South Africa by 3 runs

Pakistan defeated South Africa by 3 runs in the first T20 match after a thrilling contest.

In the match played at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, the captain of the visiting team decided to field after winning the toss against Pakistan.

Playing first, Pakistan scored 169 for 6 thanks to a brilliant century by Mohammad Rizwan, in response to which the South African team managed to score 166 runs.

Pakistan's innings

Earlier, at the start of their innings, the national team had already suffered a loss in the over when captain Babar Azam was dismissed without opening an account.

Haider Ali was the second batsman to be dismissed by the national team after Babar, who was dismissed for 21 off 37 balls.

Newcomer batsman Hussain Talat also could not stay on the wicket for long and scored 15 runs on a total score of 69 and fell victim to Tabriz Shamsi.

Pakistan's next player to be dismissed was Iftikhar Ahmed who was caught on the ball of Fortune after scoring only 4 runs. Khushdal Shah and Fahm Ashraf could not support Rizwan for long and soon returned to the pavilion.

Meanwhile, wicketkeeper-batsman Rizwan continued his innings responsibly with the help of 7 sixes and 6 fours, completing his first T20 century, becoming the second Pakistani after Ahmed Shehzad to score a century in all three formats.

Rizwan played brilliant innings of 104 off 64 balls and remained unbeaten.

For South Africa, Felquayo took two wickets, and Fortune, Tabriz Shamsi and Lotho took one wicket each.

South Africa's innings

Chasing a target of 170, the South African openers gave a solid start and scored 53 runs for the first wicket.

The first out of the visiting team was Geniemann Milan who was bowled by Usman Qadir for an individual score of 44.

The Proteas' wickets kept falling from time to time, but Reza Hendricks remained on the wicket, scoring 54 runs and being run out.

Apart from him, the other South African batsmen did not show any significant performance. In the last overs, Fortune and Dwayne Pretors batted dangerously well and took the match close to victory but could not succeed. Both scored 17 and 15 runs respectively. Make it and stay out.

 For Pakistan, Haris Rauf and Usman Qadir took two wickets each while Faheem Ashraf took one wicket.

Muhammad Rizwan of Pakistan was named Man of the Match for his excellent batting.

The Pakistan T20 team consisted of captain Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Hussain Talat, Khushdal Shah, Fahim Ashraf, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

The Proteas were led by wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Kleisen and other visitors included Reza Hendricks, Jenny Milan, Jack Snyman, David Miller, Dwayne Pretors, Andile Felquayo, Jr. Dala, Tabriz Shamsi, Lotho, and Bjorn Fortune.