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Pakistan pacemen and electric Ayub demolish South Africa

football31 October 2025 18:29| © MWP
By:Patrick Compton
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Pakistan’s pace bowlers set up the win and sensational hitting from opener Saim Ayub completed a convincing nine-wicket triumph over South Africa in the second T20I at a heaving Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Friday night.

Just as Pakistan weren’t at the races on Tuesday at Rawalpindi, the Proteas were even less competitive in Lahore as their batters were blown away for 110 before Saim smashed an unbeaten 71 in just 38 balls to give the capacity crowd a joyful early night, with Pakistan reaching their target with 41 balls in hand and nine wickets in the bank.

The action now moves forward to tomorrow (Saturday) at the same venue where the three-match series will be decided.

Donovan Ferreira, South Africa’s captain said after the game: “Obviously we didn’t bat well and didn’t give our bowlers much to defend. There isn’t much time to reflect, but from a cricketing point of view you just have to move on.”

Pakistan captain Salman Agha said: “They outplayed us in the previous game and we did the same today. It’s beautifully set up now and hopefully we’ll have a cracker in the final. We bowled really well up front. Saim (Ayub) is someone who can play for the next 10 years and become the player we all want him to be.”

PAKISTAN FIRE ON ALL FRONTS

The left-handed Ayub is top of his talent pool, much like South Africa’s Dewald Brevis, but on this night he played the winner’s hand, striking six fours and five sixes in his innings, including one barely believable flick off his legs that soared over the square leg boundary.

While Ayub provided the fireworks, it was crowd favourite Babar Azam who probably delighted the fans most.

Needing a handful of runs to become the leading scorer in T20I cricket, Babar began with a glorious cover drive off his first delivery from Corbin Bosch before he duly reached his goal of 4 232 runs, beating Rohit Sharma into second place and ahead also of the likes of Virat Kohli and Jos Buttler.

A sign of the crowd’s excitement was the roar that greeted the wicket of opener Sahibzada Farhan (leg before to Bosch) after he and Ayub had added 54 for the first wicket.

The acclaim was not about the wicket falling, but the air of expectancy that greeted the imminent arrival of “King” Babar.

Pakistan had earlier won the toss and inserted South Africa. And it was their pace bowlers who did the business in sensational style as the tourists were blown away for 110 in 19.2 overs.

Nine of the 10 wickets fell to the pacemen, with Salman Mirza (3-14), Faheem Shraf (4-23) and Naseem Shah (2-28) carving their way through the Proteas’ batters who had little to offer on a slightly tacky pitch.

All three pace bowlers bowled a superb line and length, but it was their variation of pace that proved conclusive with the batters undone, time and again, by slower cutters that produced false shots.

In front of a big, boisterous home crowd, Pakistan got off to a splendid start when Mirza – who replaced fellow left-arm paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi – slid one through the defences of Reeza Hendricks with the second ball of the match, the ball cutting back and bowling the right-hander through the gate.

Fellow opener Quinton de Kock followed in the second over, deceived by a slower delivery from Shah that he spooned to mid-off.

And when Tony de Zorzi top-edged a pull from a Mirza slow bouncer to short fine-leg, South Africa were in serious trouble on 15 for three in the third over.

It could have been worse for the Proteas when Matthew Breetzke was dropped at short third man by Mirza, but the bowler made that drop academic when he bowled Breetzke with a brilliant cutter, the ball pitching on leg and hitting his off-stump.

Brevis fought back in inimitable style, smashing three sixes in a 16-ball 25 but he chose the wrong ball to attack from Ashraf, spooning an attempted pull to cover.

And when skipper Donovan Ferreira played on to Ashraf after striking two fine boundaries, South Africa were limping on 66-6 at the halfway mark.

There was to be no miracle recovery for the tourists. The damage was done and there was little relief for the Proteas’ batters as wickets continued to fall regularly with mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed the only tweaker to claim a wicket when he bowled a bewildered Nandre Burger with a wrong’un.

As it was, only four of the SA batters reached double-figures as Pakistan laid claim to the match at the halfway mark.

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

SOUTH AFRICA: Reeza Hendricks, Quinton de Kock (wk), Tony de Zorzi, Dewald Brevis, Matthew Breetzke, Donovan Ferreira (c), George Linde, Corbin Bosch, Nandre Burger, Ottneil Baartman, Lungi Ngidi

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