LAHORE: Pakistan’s pace attack, led by Salman Mirza, Faheem Ashraf, and Naseem Shah, bowled out South Africa for a modest total in Friday’s must-win second T20I at Gaddafi Stadium.

Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha’s decision to field first bore fruit as his team’s bowling unit bowled out South Africa for a meagre 110 in 19.2 overs.

Youngster Salman gave Pakistan a dominant start with the ball, by cleaning up Reeza Hendricks (zero) on just the second delivery of the fixture.

The Proteas then lost two more wickets in successive overs, bowled by Naseem and Salman, respectively, and thus, had been reduced to 15-3.

Bowling his third over on trot, Salman, who had earlier dropped Matthew Breetzke (five) off Naseem, repented his mistake by bowling the right-handed batter with a leg-cutter.

With South Africa reeling at 23-4 in 4.4 overs, Dewald Brevis attempted to launch a counterattack by going after the Pakistan pacers, but Faheem drew curtains on his blistering cameo in the eighth over with a short-pitched delivery.

Brevis remained the top-scorer for the visitors with a 16-ball 25, featuring three sixes.

The all-rounder then dismissed South Africa captain Donovan Ferreira (15) and George Linde in his next two overs, respectively, to strengthen Pakistan’s command.

Naseem added to South Africa’s woes in the 14th over by dismissing their all-rounder Corbin Bosch (11), caught behind.

Following the slump, lower-order batters Ottneil Baartman and Nandre Burger (nine) added valuable runs at the backend, putting together 19 runs for the ninth wicket until the latter was dismissed by Abrar Ahmed in the penultimate over.

Faheem was the leading wicket-taker for Pakistan, dismissing four South African batters for just 23 runs in 3.2 overs, followed by Salman Mirza, who gave away just 14 runs in his four overs to pick up three wickets. Naseem Shah lent ample support with two scalps, while Abrar chipped in with one.

Playing XIs

Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Salman Agha(c), Usman Khan(w), Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Naseem Shah, Salman Mirza and Abrar Ahmed.

South Africa: Reeza Hendricks, Quinton de Kock(w), Tony de Zorzi, Dewald Brevis, Matthew Breetzke, Donovan Ferreira(c), George Linde, Corbin Bosch, Nandre Burger, Ottneil Baartman and Lungi Ngidi.

Head-to-head

Pakistan and South Africa have come face-to-face 26 times in T20Is, with the Proteas narrowly leading the head-to-head record with 13 victories, compared to the Green Shirts’ 12.

Matches: 26

Pakistan: 12

South Africa: 13

No Result: 1

This is a developing story and is being updated with new details.