A full-strength Pakistan beat a spirited South Africa by two wickets in their ODI series opener to mark the return of international cricket in Faisalabad after a 17-year absence.
Pakistan tailenders hung in to reach 264-8 in the last over as an inexperienced South Africa fought gallantly to claim four wickets in the last five overs and pushed the home team to the limit.
South Africa, which lost its sixth straight toss across formats on its tour of Pakistan, couldn’t capitalize on half-centuries from debutant Lhuan-dre Pretorius (57) and Quinton de Kock (63) before it got bowled out for 263 in 49.1 overs.
Agha and Rizwan dig inTop-scorer Salman Ali Agha (62) and Mohammad Rizwan (55) saw Pakistan cruising to 196-3 in the 39th over before Pakistan nearly slipped in what appeared to be a straightforward run-chase.
Rizwan smashed a half-century in his first ODI after being removed from the captaincy and was replaced by Shaheen Shah Afridi as he shared 91-run stand with Agha to put the .
