Pakistan center Abrar Ahmed and teammates celebrate after South Africa’s Corbin Bosch was called off. (AP photo) NEW DELHI: Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed’s magical spell of 4-27 dismantled a fragile South African batting line-up as Pakistan won the three-match ODI series 2-1 in the final match in Faisalabad on Saturday with a dominant seven-wicket win.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP 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 in just 37 runs. Abrar’s career-best figures came on a slow surface where his variations completely unnerved South Africa’s inexperienced batsmen.Openers Quinton de Kock (53) and Lhuan-dre Pretorius (39) gave South Africa another strong start of 72 runs, but the innings collapsed dramatically once Pretorius was caught at long off by Salman Ali Agha. De Kock, who became the second fastest South African to reach 7000 ODI runs after Hashim Amla, was soon trapped lbw by Mohammad Nawaz in an attempted sweep – a dismissal that opened the floodgates.
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Abrar ran through the middle order in a mesmerizing raid – debutant Rubin Hermann with a googly, then a sharp turn and low bounce to clear Donovan Ferreira and Corbin Bosch. 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,” admitted South Africa captain Matthew Breetzke. “It was tough conditions and unfortunately we lost too many wickets there… Abrar played really nicely.In reply, Pakistan cruised to 144/3 in 25.1 overs, led by 77 off 70 balls from Saim Ayub, who hit 11 fours and a six. After Fakhar Zaman fell for a duck, Ayub and Babar Azam (27) steadied the chase with a fluent 65 runs before Mohammad Rizwan (32) finished the job with ease.Captain Shaheen Afridi, who led Pakistan to victory in his debut ODI series as captain, praised his team’s collective effort: “It was a team effort across formats. The spinners turned the game around and everyone took their chances.”With the win, Pakistan capped off a successful domestic season – drawing the Tests 1-1 and clinching both the T20I and ODI series against South Africa.
