Rain sees Pakistan lose by four runs in 1st T20 Cricket Match
JOHANNESBURG: The first T20 was called off due to rain with Pakistan stuck on 60 at the loss of two wickets in 9.1 overs, four runs short of the D/L par score, to see the Proteas claim the match, ESPNCricinfo reported.
Pakistan had lost Shehzad and Jamshed to scores of nine and 18 respectively. Hafeez and Umar Akmal were on the crease when the covers came on.
Earlier, rain had already caused a delayed start to the match.
After Hafeez won the toss and put the hosts in to bat first on a wet outfield, Pakistani seamers failed to place any sort of restriction on South African strokeplay.
As Anwar Ali and Sohail Tanvir opened the attack, the Proteas marched to 41 without a loss in four overs.
Saeed Ajmal excluded from the playing eleven, Hafeez brought himself on and pulled things back with two wickets.
Debutant Bilawal Bhatti impressed with his nippy bowling. He took a wicket but ended up with expensive figures at 35 for 1.
Hafeez took two for 25 while Junaid Khan took as many wickets for 24 runs.
Shahid Afridi also managed to take one wicket.
Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq are out of the match due to injury.
In their stead, Pakistan are playing seamer Anwar Ali and debutant all-rounder Bilawal Bhatti.
Pakistan
Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez (c), Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Amin, Umar Akmal†,Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Bilawal Bhatti, Junaid Khan, Anwar Ali
South Africa
HM Amla, Q de Kock†, F du Plessis (c), H Davids, JP Duminy, DA Miller, WD Parnell, M Morkel, DW Steyn,LL Tsotsobe, Imran Tahir
