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Saim Ayub’s brilliance of 98 runs off 57 balls aided Pakistan in posting a 207-run target against South Africa during the second T20I at Centurion Park on Friday.
Saim had opened the innings for Pakistan with skipper Mohammad Rizwan and kept a steady flow of runs.
The skipper’s innings, however, was short-lived as he fell against Ottneil Baartman after scoring just 11 runs from 13 balls.
Saim was joined by Babar Azam who struck back-to-back two fours. Soon the powerplay came to an end and the scoreboard was ticking at 45/1 for Pakistan.
After the powerplay, the duo continued batting steadily and took Pakistan to 90/1 at the end of the 10th over with Saim nearing to 50 and Babar adding 29 runs off 16 balls with three fours and one six.
Saim went on to cross the 50-run mark in style as he first hit a four — taking his individual inning to 48 — followed by a six to Nqabayomzi Peter.
The momentum set by the Babar-Saim partnership was broken in the next over as Babar fell against George Linde after scoring 31 off 20 deliveries, taking Pakistan’s score to 112/2.
After Babar’s dismissal, the Proteas bowlers found themselves back in the game as Dayyaan Galiem sent Usman Khan back to the pavilion in the next over (the 13th over).
Things further turned grave for Pakistan as Usman’s replacement, Tahir, also got out on the first ball of the 15th over — bowled by Galiem after scoring six singles off six balls.
However, Saim did not budge from the pressure and kept on hitting the South African bowlers all over the park and just fell two runs short from scoring his first ever T20I hundred in the 27th game of his career.
Irfan Khan joined Saim in his endeavour of smashing South Africa’s bowling attack all over the park and played a short cameo of 30 off 16 runs.
Pakistan ended the innings with a score of 206 runs at the loss of five wickets in 20 overs.
Earlier, Pakistan had won the toss and invited South Africa to bowl first.
