Pakistani gamers rejoice throughout their Hong Kong Sixes match towards South Africa on November 2, 2024. — Geo Information
Pakistan have made it to the semi-final of the continuing Hong Kong Sixes event after defeating South Africa by 18 runs throughout the quarter last match on the Mission Highway Floor on Saturday.
Batting first, the Inexperienced Shirts had a shaky begin to their innings as their in-form batters Asif Ali and Faheem perished for a golden duck within the first over with simply eight runs on the board.
Again-to-back wickets didn’t deter the nationwide facet as Muhammad Akhlaq, throughout his partnership with Hussain Talat, launched an astounding restoration with belligerent hitting.
The wicket-keeper batter smashed the Proteas bowlers for seven sixes and two fours and introduced up his half-century in simply 16 deliveries.
Quickly after amassing the milestone, Akhlaq retired out at 53*, placing Pakistan in a dominant place as they have been 66-2 in 4 overs.
All-rounder Aamer Yamin and Talat then gave the ultimate touches to Pakistan’s innings with blistering cameos. Yamin scored 18 off six, whereas Talat scored an unbeaten 27 off 11 balls.
Courtesy of them, the Males in Inexperienced managed to placed on a formidable complete of 105-3 within the given six overs.
Chasing a frightening 104-run goal, South Africa solely managed to attain 88-4 regardless of Evan Jones’ blitz.
The five-time champions had a shaky begin to the pursuit as they misplaced two wickets together with their captain JJ Smuts inside two overs with simply 12 runs on the board.
Jones then joined forces with Modiri Litheko and pushed to anchor the run chase with an important 48-run partnership for the fourth wicket till Talat drew curtains on his combating knock.
Jones remained the top-scorer for South Africa with a 13-ball 41, laced with one 4 and 5 sixes.
Talat struck once more on the subsequent supply to cut back the previous champions to 61-4 in 4.3 overs.
The back-to-back dismissals halted the stream of runs for South Africa they usually ultimately got here up 18 runs quick.
For Pakistan, Talat bagged two wickets, whereas Shahab Khan and Yamin made one scalp every.
The Faheem Ashraf-led facet is unbeaten within the ongoing version of the Hong Kong Tremendous Sixes. They began their marketing campaign with a 13-run victory over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier than humbling arch-rivals India by six wickets.
The event’s semi-finals and last might be performed on Sunday (tomorrow).
