South Africa 270 for 2 (de Kock 123*, de Zorzi 76, Ashreef 1-40) beat Pakistan 269 for 9 (Agha 69, Nawaz 59, Burger 4-46) by eight wickets
Quinton de Kock scored the first hundred of his international comeback, and 22nd overall, as South Africa drew level in the ODI series against Pakistan. Tony de Zorzi and de Kock shared a 153-run second-wicket stand, which followed de Kock and Lhuan-dre Pretorius’s 81-run opening partnership. They only lost two wickets, as de Kock completed the chase of 270 with 59 balls to spare, in Matthew Breetzke’s company.
South Africa batted with fluency and flair, both of which were absent from the Pakistan line-up after they chose to bat first. Though half-centuries from Saim Ayub and Salman Ali Agha set Pakistan up well, their strike rates of 80.30 and 65.09 meant the going was slow going throughout their innings. Mohammed Nawaz’s career-best run-a-ball 59 eventually took them over 250, to 269.
Nawaz’s individual achievement was one of three in the first half of the match. South Africa’s left-arm seamer Nandre Burger and legspinner Nqaba Peter, who both sat out the first game, bagged career-best figures of 4 for 46 and 3 for 55 respectively. They were well supported by disciplined efforts from Corbin Bosch, Donovan Ferreira and Bjorn Fortuin, who all conceded at under six runs an over.
