South Africa completed a 2-0 series win in the Twenty20 internationals against Pakistan after cruising to a six-wicket win in the second game in Abu Dhabi.
Pakistan, who turned in a poor batting display in the opening game when they set 120, were equally poor on Wednesday in managing to set 121 for victory.
Juan Theron took 4-27 for South Africa who eased to victory in 18.4 overs.
The Proteas cruised for most of the response with Graeme Smith (38) and Colin Ingram (32) top scoring.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Pakistan's innings bore similarities to the first six-wicket defeat and they had to rely on newly appointed Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq (33) to see them to a respectable total.
At one stage Pakistan were 39-5, but Misbah and Abdul Razzaq's (25) 45-run stand helped them edge over 100 in the 18th over.
Misbah was eventually out in the last over when Theron claimed three wickets from the final four balls to leave the hosts at 120-9.
Pakistan needed early wickets, but got none as Smith and Loots Bosman (11) put on 38, before skipper Shahid Afridi came in and struck immediately.
Afridi should then have taken the wicket of Smith in the ninth over, but Umar Akmal spilt a regulation chance at long-off.
AB de Villiers also fell for 11, before Afridi ended his miserly spell with 1-13.
There was a little more pressure when Smith was stumped with 53 still needed from 40.
But JP Duminy (22 not out) along with rookie Ingram took them to their sixth consecutive T20 win.
"We didn't get teams out in Twenty20 previously and to get Pakistan out twice on two days was nice," said South Africa captain Johan Botha.
"Theron bowled superbly and all the guys deserved this win."
Pakistan's captain blamed poor batting for the series loss.
"We needed good starts but that didn't come in both the matches," said Afridi.
"My own performance was not up to the mark so we have to sit down and plan to improve our batting which is struggling."
The two teams now play the first of five one-day internationals in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment