NEW DELHI: Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed’s magical spell of 4-27 dismantled a fragile South African batting lineup as Pakistan clinched the three-match ODI series 2-1 with a dominant seven-wicket win in the final game at Faisalabad on Saturday.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Bowling first after South Africa finally won their first toss of the tour, Pakistan bundled out the visitors for just 143 in 37.5 overs, as the Proteas lost their last eight wickets for a mere 37 runs. Abrar’s career-best figures came on a slow surface where his variations completely flummoxed South Africa’s inexperienced batters.Openers Quinton de Kock (53) and Lhuan-dre Pretorius (39) had given South Africa another strong start of 72 runs, but once Pretorius was caught at long-on off Salman Ali Agha, the innings collapsed dramatically. De Kock, who became the second-fastest South African to reach 7,000 ODI runs after Hashim Amla, was soon trapped lbw by Mohammad Nawaz while attempting a slog sweep — a dismissal that opened the floodgates.
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Abrar ran through the middle order in a mesmerising two-over burst — bowling debutant Rubin Hermann with a googly, then cleaning up Donovan Ferreira and Corbin Bosch with sharp turn and low bounce. Nawaz chipped in with 2-31, while Shaheen Shah Afridi polished off the tail with two wickets in two balls.“We were probably looking at 250,” South Africa captain Matthew Breetzke admitted. “It was tough conditions and unfortunately we lost too many wickets there … Abrar bowled really nicely.”In reply, Pakistan cruised to 144/3 in 25.1 overs, led by a blazing 77 off 70 balls from Saim Ayub, who struck 11 fours and a six. After Fakhar Zaman fell for a duck, Ayub and Babar Azam (27) steadied the chase with a fluent 65-run stand before Mohammad Rizwan (32) finished the job with ease.Captain Shaheen Afridi, leading Pakistan to victory in his debut ODI series as skipper, lauded his team’s collective effort: “It’s been teamwork across formats. The spinners turned the game around, and everyone took their chances.”With this win, Pakistan capped a successful home season — drawing the Tests 1-1 and clinching both the T20I and ODI series against South Africa.
