Fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi grabbed three wickets and star batter Babar Azam hit a half-century to guide Pakistan to a four-wicket win over South Africa in the third Twenty20 international.
Shaheen took 3-26 to restrict South Africa to 139-9 before Azam’s 47-ball 68 helped Pakistan overhaul the target for the loss of six wickets in 19 overs for a 2-1 series win in Lahore.
South Africa won the first match by 55 runs in Rawalpindi while Pakistan took the second by nine wickets, also in Lahore.
A full house of 32,000 at Gaddafi Stadium cheered the home boy Azam when he cracked three successive boundaries off Ottniel Baartman to reach his 37th half-century — his first after 13 T20I innings.
Azam and Salman Agha (33) lifted Pakistan during a solid 76-run stand for the third wicket after Saim Ayub (nought) and Sahibzada Farhan (19) fell by the seventh over.
Azam smashed nine boundaries but his dismissal to pacer Corbin Bosch put Pakistan in a spot of bother with Hasan Nawaz (five) and Mohammad Nawaz (nought) falling in quick succession.
Usman Khan, six not out, hit the winning single.
“I am happy at the come-from-behind series win,” said the skipper Agha. “We were 1-0 down so it was a great effort by the players to win the next two.”
South African skipper Donovan Ferreira rued his side’s batting.
“We lost wickets in clusters and didn’t score much, but credit to the bowlers to keep it tight,” said Ferreira. “It was a great learning for us.”
South Africa, sent in to bat, slipped to two down without a run as Shaheen dismissed Quinton de Kock and Lhuan-dre Pretorius – both without scoring – off the second and third balls of the match.
It became three down without a run, but Dewald Brevis overturned a leg-before decision off the fifth ball.
The reprieve helped him add 38 for the third wicket with Reeza Hendricks to revive the innings, before debutant Usman Tariq broke the stand, getting Brevis caught off his second ball.
Brevis hit two sixes in his 22-ball 21.
Hendricks and Ferreira (29 with three sixes) added 34 for the fifth wicket.
Hendricks, top-scorer with a 36-ball 34 with two boundaries, holed out in the 15th over off Tariq, who finished with 2-26.
It was left to Bosch to help South Africa reach a fighting total with 30 not out.
