Haider And Riaz Late Show Sets Up Decider In Dubai

Haider And Riaz Late Show Sets Up Decider In Dubai

Shahid Afridi hits out during his innings of 29

©REUTERS/Nikhil Monteiro (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Tags: SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Pakistan 275-9 (Younus Khan 73, Morkel 3-48) beat
South Africa 274-6 (Smith 92, de Villiers 49) by one wicket
Fourth One-Day International, Dubai
Scorecard

Zulqarnain Haider hit the winning runs as Pakistan beat South Africa by one wicket with one ball to spare and level their One-Day International series in Dubai at two games apiece with one to play.

Graeme Smith fell eight runs short of a century as South Africa powered their way to 274 for six and Pakistan closed on 275 for nine to register their second one-wicket victory in the series, which now heads for a decider on Monday (8th November).

Smith's 92 in 105 balls included eight fours as he led South Africa's charge as they aimed for a series-clinching win, going into the match 2-1 up.

AB de Villiers (49) and JP Duminy (36) also made handy contributions before Wahab Riaz got the crowd shouting by having Duminy and David Miller (0) bowled with successive deliveries.

Johan Botha successfully dealt with the hat-trick ball and went on to play an inventive knock of 28 not out in 15 balls, hitting six fours to send South Africa speeding past the 250-mark.

Failures at the top of the order for Hashim Amla (10) and Jacques Kallis (15), who fell to Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Hafeez respectively, had put South Africa under pressure.

Smith and de Villiers then added 94 for the third wicket before they too fell to Hafeez and Akhtar respectively while Colin Ingram was left unbeaten on 23.

Pakistan then lost Imran Farhat early, but their innings was given solid foundations thanks to Mohammad Hafeez's aggressive 42, Younus Khan's measured 73 in 115 balls and Asad Shafiq's patient 37.

However, South Africa worked themselves back into contention as Morne Morkel bowled Younus and a belligerent innings of 29 in 25 balls from Shahid Afridi was ended when he was caught by Wayne Parnell off Johan Botha.

Abdul Razzaq made a swift 33 but his dismissal, caught by AB de Villiers off Morkel for his third wicket, put Pakistan well behind the game.

Riaz and Haider had other ideas, and aided by some loose bowling and poor fielding, they got Pakistan to the brink. Riaz took full advantage of being dropped by Smith to hit two fours in an innings of 18 in ten balls.

With six runs required from the final over, Riaz was run out from the third ball but Haider, unbeaten on 19 in 22 balls, held his nerve to hit three runs from the next two balls to ensure Akhtar was not required to face.

The tight finish marked the third game in a row that had gone down to the wire, following Pakistan's one-wicket win in the second match and South Africa's two-run success in the third which followed a comfortable eight-wicket win for the Proteas in the opener.

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