SA v PAK: Left with too much to do, Fakhar Zaman plays innings of lifetime in lost cause

For the generation that couldn’t see Saeed Anwar bat, or were not lucky enough to see the best of Inzamam either and have been devoid of classy and brazenly attacking batting from Pakistan, this South Africa series is turning out to be a must-watch. First, it was Babar Azam with all his elegance and class and today Fakhar Zman decided to put on a show with his stellar batting performance at the Wanderers.  

It was the left hander’s best-ever innings in an ODI match or most probably in his life where he single-handedly took Men in Green to bang on doors of victory from an impossible situation. But before he could have the last banging, the gas went out of the propeller, the legs tired out, the brain gave up and it required a brilliant direct hit from a certain Aiden Markram stationed at long-off to get the zinger bells rolling at the striker’s end. Just seven short of what could have been the first double hundred in chase in ODIs, Zaman got run out. 

Pakistani hopes died out, but that did not let all the 12 players on the field give the 13th one a warm send-off, well maybe as warm as there could ever have been. Till the time he reached the dressing rooms the record holder for the highest individual score by a batsman in the second innings of an ODI game was cheered on, applauded and congratulated for the amazing effort in which he hit 18 fours and 10 sixes. 

Zaman was the only lighting in a dull Pakistani scorecard where only one other batter apart from the 30-year-old Pakistan Navy man could get past the 20 run mark and that was the skipper Babar Azam (31). 

Chasing a huge total of 343, Shaheens couldn’t get the start that they required. Lungi Ngidi removed Imam-Ul-Haq for just five. Babar and Zaman then put together 63 runs for the second wicket. But Anrich Nortje, the fiery fast bowler made a devastating impact removing two of Pakistan’s biggest hopes in Babar and Mohammad Rizwan in the same over. It took just 50 runs for the Pak side to lose four wickets. Zaman then tried to small partnerships, first with Asif Ali and then with Faheem Ashraf to get to 205 for seven. 

However, it was only after the fall of the seventh wicket that Zaman started shedding off the cautious approach and chasing the target, throwing the kitchen sink after it. In the next 43 balls, he scored 63 runs to take Pakistan to 273 in the 45th over. 

After losing Shaheen Afridi, Zaman made sure that he played almost all balls and out of the next 26 balls, he faced 21 of them and scored 34 runs. With 39 required off the last two, the match was still in some control of Zaman. But with a tight 49th over by Andile Phehlukwayo, in which he gave away just seven runs, it became almost impossible for a tired Zaman to pull of 32 off the last over. 

With three lusty blows from Mohammad Hasnain though, Pakistan ended their innings, only 17 runs behind the total set up by Temba Bavuma’s men. 

Earlier in the day, after being invited by Babar Azam to bat first once again, the South African team with the help of brilliant knocks from skipper Bavuma, senior pros Quinton de Kock (80 off 86), David Miller (50* off 27) and last match top scorer Rassie Van der Dussen’s (60 off 37) reached to 341-6. Bavuma missed his first hundred as skipper by only eight runs and top-scored in the innings. 

The last and deciding game of the series will take place at the Supersport Park, Centurion on April 7. Pakistan will have ample time to seize the opportunity and win only their second-ever bilateral ODI series against South Africa as the mainstays of the Proteas lineup including de Kock, Miller, Ngidi, Nortje and Rabada leaving for India to play for their respective IPL teams.