Pakistan helped their cause of making it to the World Cup quarterfinals by defeating South Africa in a well-fought match in Auckland on Saturday, 7th March. The Proteas were chasing 232 runs under the Duckworth Lewis method but fell to an amazing bowling performance by the Pakistanis.
Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz took 3 wickets apiece with Ali grabbing his career best figures of 3/40. Captain AB de Villiers almost brought South Africa back in to the match with a gutsy 77, but could not guide his team to victory as they were bowled out for 202 in 33.3 overs.
Dale Steyn had bowled well for the Proteas with figures of 3/30. But Sarfaraz Ahmed took 6 catches behind the stumps for Pakistan and scored 49 runs as well to win the Man of the Match award.
This is Pakistan’s third consecutive win and it puts them at number 3 in Pool B. South Africa also have 3 wins under their belt and are above Pakistan only because of a superior run rate.