In a thrilling World Cup match on Friday, South Africa beat Pakistan by a single wicket to go to the semi-finals.
After chasing 271 to win, South Africa reached their target with 16 balls remaining after spinner Mohammad Nawaz's boundary off the last man, Keshav Maharaj.
The man of the match, Aiden Markram, scored 91 runs, but his wicket allowed Pakistan to stage a surprise attack. With three wickets remaining and 21 runs needed to win, South Africa lost Markram in the 41st over. Mohammad Wasim Jr., Shaheen Afridi, and Haris Rauf put more pressure on South Africa's last six overs, with the first two picking up a wicket each. But with Shaheen and Haris having already completed their overs and Wasim Jr. bowling his final over in the 47th over, Keshav Maharaj got an opportunity to go for big blows and beat Mohammad Nawaz for a four in the 48th over to win the match.
Temba Bavuma, the captain of South Africa, is back in the game after Kagiso Rabada was ruled out due to a back spasm. In the meantime, Pakistan reinstated Muhammad Nawaz in lieu of Usama Mir, and Hasan Ali, who is ill, was replaced by Muhammad Wasim Jr. Both teams had gotten off to a similar start in their 2023 World Cup campaigns. Before dropping their third game very embarrassingly, both teams won their first two by wide margins. In what is still perhaps the biggest upset of the tournament, South Africa lost to the Netherlands, while Pakistan lost to table-toppers and arch-rivals India. But since then, there has been no greater contrast between the two sides' trajectories. In response, South Africa defeated Bangladesh by 149 runs and England by 229 runs. As for Pakistan,
After winning their first two games, Pakistan has lost their last four games but is still in the running for the semi-finals, while South Africa has won five of their last six games and lost one.
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