South Africa won their opening T20 cricket match against Pakistan by 55 runs despite the return of Babar Azam and amidst the tourist disaster.
Babar Azam was dismissed for a duck in his return to T20 cricket as an underpowered South Africa defeated Pakistan by 55 runs in the opening match of the trifecta.
Pakistan could not recover from Corbin Bosch’s twin strikes, including the wicket of Babar, as South Africa defeated the home team for 139 on Tuesday, much to the disappointment of 16,000 home fans at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
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South Africa were 194-9 after captain Donovan Ferreira lost the toss and was asked to bat first. Leadoff hitter Leesa Hendricks scored 60 points off 40 pitches, and George Linde added 36 points off 22 pitches.
In his last T20 match against South Africa in December 2024, Babar had just two balls and provided a meek catch to Hendricks at cover in the powerplay.
Pakistan recalled Babar for third place in the series after resting Fakhar Zaman ahead of next month’s one-day international series against Proteas.
Babar was cheered wildly by the packed crowd when he took to bat, but needed nine runs to break Rohit Sharma’s all-time record of 4,231 runs in T20 internationals. However, the stands fell silent as Babar was unable to clear Hendricks with a cover and fell back.
After losing two wickets within the first six overs, Pakistan’s chase never gained momentum. Saim Ayub was supposed to be dismissed after failing to score in Nandre Berger’s first over, but was dropped by Matthew Blitzke at number three before the left-hander top-scored with 37 off 28 balls.
Pakistan could have bowled out cheaper but Mohammad Nawaz hit 36 off 20 balls, becoming one of the four batsmen to reach double figures.
Bosch picked up two more wickets in his return match to finish with 4-14 and Linde with 3-31.
“It was a collective effort,” said Ferreira, who captained the Proteas in the absence of injured David Miller. “We made a batting effort on the power play and Linde finished it well. We wanted to keep the ball simple and keep it nice and simple.”
“Liisa put things together well for us, which allowed George’s license to explode. And he (Bosh) had very good energy on the ball,” Ferreira added. “He always goes for the yorker, but today he hit the deck and got something out of the deck. Four wickets is a great result.”
Unlike Babar, Quinton de Kock has been keen to return to the sport’s shortest format since he last played in the T20 World Cup.
Hendricks and de Kock got off to a great start with 44 runs off 23 balls, with de Kock smashing five boundaries off 23 balls but was caught at backward point in Ayub’s first over.
Debutant Toni De Sorge kept the momentum going with 33 off 16 balls as South Africa advanced to 74-1 from the first six overs, with Shaheen Shah Afridi (1-45) consistently missing long and Naseem Shah (1-34) out on target in his first T20 in 11 months.
The Proteas kept increasing their scoring rate and by the halfway mark they were pulled back to Pakistan’s spinners at 111-3. Left-arm spinner Nawaz finished with 3-26 and Ayub 2-31, but Hendricks kept one end intact and lost to leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed (1-42) in the 18th over.
Linde showed slow intent and smashed Afridi for 18 runs in the 17th over. These included a life where Babar dropped a sitter at mid-on that ended up rolling over the boundary.
“We just need to bat properly,” Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha said. “We lack partnerships (and) with partnerships we can chase totals like this. We (also) didn’t bowl well in the powerplay. Bowling at the top of the off stump would have been enough, but the positive was how we got it back afterwards.”
Lahore will host the remaining two matches (Friday and Saturday) before both teams will play a three-match ODI series in Faisalabad from November 4 to 8.
