1st T20I match: Pakistan beat South Africa by 3 runs

In the first T20I fixture of the three-match series between the two nations, Pakistan defeated South Africa by three runs at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday.

In order to bring up a decent score for the Men In Green, Mohammad Rizwan struck a gorgeous lot.

Rizwan became the first wicket-keeper ever from Pakistan to score a century in the T20Is.

The 28-year old cricketer scored an undefeated104 off 64 deliveries.

His innings consisted of 7 sixes, which is the best in T20Is by a Pakistani batsman.

He is also the world’s second wicket-keeper batsman to achieve 100 in all three international cricket formats.

Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shahzad hold the previous record, both of whom had smashed 6 sixes on separate occasions in an innings. Until Usman Qadir’s spell of 2 for 21 turned things around on the field for Pakistan, the Proteas were in a good spot early in the game.

Later on, Qadir bowled one more perfect delivery that breached the defenses of batsman Jacques Snyman, two runs off 6 deliveries, to reduce South Africa to 61 runs for the loss of 2 wickets.

Pakistan’s remarkable all-rounder, Faheem Ashraf, later removed David Miller who is deemed to be the hard-hitting batsman, caught behind by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, after scoring only 6 runs off 10 deliveries.

Fast-bowler, Haris Raif, bowled skipper Heinrich Klassen and then Shaheens soon chase handled a big blow as Hendricks was s run-out by Rizwan, the batsman had scored 54 runs off 42 deliveries.

South African captain Heinrich Klaasen had earlier claimed the toss and was first elected to the ground. As skipper Babar Azam was run-out for a duck by spinner Bjorn Fortuin, Pakistan was off to a bad start.