Star Pakistan batter Babar Azam had a T20 comeback to forget as he got out for a duck as South Africa eased to a 55-run win over Pakistan in the first T20 in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan had recalled Babar, who last played a T20 in December 2024 against South Africa, at number three to give Fakhar Zaman rest ahead of next month’s ODI series against the Proteas.
The former captain was cheered loudly by the capacity crowd in Rawalpindi. He needed just nine runs to break Rohit Sharma’s all-time record of 4,231 runs in T20 internationals.
But there was pin-drop silence as Babar lasted only two balls, offering a tame catch off the bowling of impressive quick Corbin Bosch to covers inside the power play.
Pakistan never got going as Bosch finished with superb figures of 4-14. He bowled with good pace and used his variations smartly as South Africa bowled out the hosts for 139.
The Proteas had earlier made 194-9. Opening batter Reeza Hendricks scored 60 off 40 balls and George Linde added 36 off 22 balls.
South Africa had a blazing start of 74 runs in the power-play and reached 100 in just nine overs.
Hendricks put on 44 in just 3.5 overs with Quinton de Kock (23). Hendricks' knock was studded with a six and five fours while De Kock smashed five fours in his 13-ball knock.
Hendricks continued to build the innings, adding 49 for the second wicket with debutant Tony de Zorzi who scored a brisk 16-ball 33 with a six and five fours.
Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz took 3-26 to stop the Proteas from breaching the 200-run mark.
Pakistan's chase never gained any momentum after they lost two wickets inside the first six overs.
Saim Ayub should have been out without scoring in Nandre Burger’s first over but was dropped by Matthew Breetzke before the left-hander top scored with 37 off 28 balls.
All-rounder Nawaz made 36 off 20 balls and was one of the four batters to reach double figures as Pakistan could only reduce the margin of defeat.
Bosch claimed two more wickets in his return spell to finish with a four-wicket haul while left-arm spinner Linde claimed 3-31.
Pakistan captain Salman Agha rued a poor batting performance. “We just need to bat properly,” he said. “We are missing partnerships and if we have partnerships we can chase such totals.
“We also didn’t bowl well in the powerplay. Bowling top of off stump would’ve been good enough but the positive is how we pulled it back later.”
His South African counterpart Donovan Ferreira lauded Bosch for his impactful spell.
“Bosch had really good energy on the ball. He usually goes for the yorkers but he hit the deck today and got something out of the deck. Four wickets is an amazing achievement,” he said.
Lahore will host the remaining two games of the T20 series on Friday and Saturday before the teams play a three-match ODI series at Faisalabad from November 4.
South Africa had levelled the preceding Test series 1-1.
