Player of the Match
Player of the Match

8.30pm So Pakistan record their first home ODI series win over South Africa and Shaheen Shah Afridi, in his first series as ODI skipper, lifts the trophy with his team. It's been packed houses in Faisalabad and we've seen some good cricket. For today, that is all from us. On behalf of Hemant Brar and Hashith Gowda, it's Abhimanyu signing off.

8.20pm Time for the presentation ceremony.

Shaheen Shah Afridi: "It has been teamwork and we have worked very hard across the formats so credit goes to the players. We didn't get so much help in the first five-six overs but when the spinners came in, they made it tough. [On rotating the team] When you play international cricket, you have to be ready for all situations. So every player who came in took their chances. As I said, it's teamwork and we played good cricket but we have another challenge coming up so now we have to prepare for that."

Matthew Breetzke: "Not enough runs. We were probably looking at 250. It was tough conditions and unfortunately we lost too many wickets there. It wasn't easy. Abrar bowled really nicely. Unluckily I got out to his last over, I was looking to be more positive after that. But yeah there was variable bounce. It's massive, experiencing these conditions. We can take a lot of learnings and confidence. Lhuan-dre has been really special and Nandre with his aggression in the powerplay. It's good to see what we've got in stock. [On captaining SA] It was cool, it was a different experience and I would have loved to have won the series but it was good to have the experience of captaincy."

Quinton de Kock is the player of the series: "Bit disappointed we didn't win. Batting conditions were pretty tough and we didn't get enough runs and they batted quite freely because of that. Unfortunate, but it is what it is. For sure [learning opportunity] so it was nice to learn a few things. Learned a couple of things on how to play spin, reverse-swing wickets played low as well so the younger players would have a lot of takeaways. [On learnings from the series] I think it's individual-based for everyone. Now obviously guys will go home, have a quick break and think about their game going forward when they come back to the subcontinent. It's everyone to themselves."

The player of the match, Abrar Ahmed: "I bowled as per how I read the pitch and I kept speaking to Rizwan as well. I have learned some things from my previous games and I just used that here. I try to keep things simple. I apply what I am working on, so I don't think much about being in and out of the team. I have been working on landing the ball in the right areas because that's important with variations and it worked today. I am very happy with this performance and the effort is to try and play better in pressure games."

8pm After Abrar Ahmed led the Pakistan spinners in bowling South Africa out for 143 after the visitors chose to bat, Saim Ayub played a blinder that ensured Pakistan ran away with the game before the pitch started to get tricky. Babar Azam, before he was run out, also looked sublime with some of his strokeplay, and Ayub just kept the pressure on the South Africa bowlers from the get go. Mohammad Rizwan ensured Ayub's late wicket didn't lead to any undue pressure, staying on to finish the game, having played second fiddle to Ayub for a majority of the chase. And that means Pakistan win the series to celebrate the return of international cricket to Faisalabad.

Earlier, South Africa started well with a 72-run stand but then the spinners took over. Salman Agha broke through with the first two wickets before Abrar Ahmed took over. South Africa collapsed 106 for 2 to 143 all out, with the final score stretched by some good lower order batting from Nqaba Peter. For South Africa, probably the performances of Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Quinton de Kock will be the only positives from today, but they had a lot to be happy about through the series, even if it ends in defeat.

25.1
4
Fortuin to Agha Salman, FOUR, Salman finishes it in style! Dances out and hammers an extra cover drive to finish this game just after the halfway mark of this chase. A comprehensive win to seal the series 2-1, Pakistan's first ODI series win over South Africa in Pakistan

END OF OVER:
25 | 8 Runs | PAK: 140/3 (4 runs required from 25 overs, RR: 5.60, RRR: 0.16)

  • Mohammad Rizwan32 (45b)
  • Salman Agha1 (1b)
  • Nqabayomzi Peter4-0-18-0
  • Bjorn Fortuin6-0-30-1
24.6
6
Peter to Mohammad Rizwan, SIX, Rocks back and hammers it over midwicket! Was quick to adjust and punish this long hop. Pakistan one hit away now