Colombo, Sri Lanka: South Africa failed to shed chockers tag from them as Umer Akmal and Umer Gul lead Pakistan to chase 134 runs target in final over here in Colombo on Friday.
Pakistan were 76 for 7 wickets when Umer Gul came into to bat. Gul hit three sixes and two fours in his 32 runs inning. He produced some clean blows over the on side and had the South Africans paralyzed. The equation was reducing rapidly with every six and the South Africans panicked. Gul broke all the hope of the pro-teas with Umer Akmal who played a great knock of 43 runs (not out) to help the green shirts to reach at the victory stand.
Saeed Ajmal, the magician, was the man who hit victory four. Dale Steyn was a highest wicket taker for the pro-teas with three for 22 runs.
In a post-match ceremony, De Villiers, while talking to Ramiz Raja, said that ”I’m proud of the way we fought back. We lost it in the last five overs. Captaincy wise one or two errors there.”
Hafeez said that ”We played couple of bad shots but great team effort. I knew that Gul could hit it hard. This is good sign that everybody is contributing.”
Hafeez added that ”We did well to restrict them, in the end Pakistan was lucky to get this.”