Sports News: Participating in their fourth Red Bull Campus Cricket in six years, South Africa bowled over rivals Pakistan in a match full of amazing plays and surprises. Pakistan beat defending champions Sri Lanka by 9 runs earlier in the day to make it to the finals where South Africa was already positioned and awaiting a challenger.
But it wasn’t smooth sailing all the way. The finals of the eighth staging of the tournament turned out to be a real nail-biter, with the final beginning with Pakistan winning the toss and electing to bat first. By the end of their innings, things looked uncertain for South Africa as Pakistan managed to post 100 runs on the board in 15.5 overs.
The Pakistan scorecard included Shahzar Hazzar’s 45 off 25 balls before he was caught off a ball bowled by Ruan de Swardt in the 7th over.
Hazzar’s support came from Muhammad Arsalan who put up 17 runs off 22 balls before he too was caught off a Ruan de Swardt ball. Muhammad Asad also made a valuable contribution, posting 14 runs from an equal number of balls before he was bowled by Sean Gilson in the 13th over.
South Africa’s bowling was led by Ruan de Swardt who took a total of 5 wickets in the 3.5 overs he bowled while conceding just 12 runs. His end-of-innings figures stood at 3.5-0-12-5.
Mohammad Asad opened the bowling for Pakistan, taking on South Africa’s Jiveshen Pillay and Francois Van Heerden in the first over.
It was Jam Muhammad Saifullah bowling from the other end, however, who got Van Heerden out with the first ball of the second over with just 6 runs on the board.
Saifullah and Mahmood Ali kept up the pressure by restricting South Africa to 23 runs while taking 3 wickets by the end of over 5. Along with Van Heerden the other batsmen who lost their wickets early on were Jiveshen Pillay in the 4th over and Ruan de Swardt one over later.
