Pakistan keep hopes live by ending South Africa’s unbeaten run

Pakistan have kept their semi-final hopes alive following a convincing victory over South Africa on Thursday.

Though it won’t be an easy task on Sunday, they have a glimmer of hope to make it through to the knockouts after a 33-run victory at the Sydney Cricket Stadium.Here is the qualification scenario for the Babar XI:First, they will be needing a big favour from the Netherlands, who will be playing against South Africa, or the match is washed out.

In case of a washout, net run-rate (NRR) won’t matter despite both Pakistan and South Africa would be ties on points, because Babar Azam’s side will have more wins.The second scenario is that Zimbabwe beat India. In that case, Pakistan need to have a higher NRR than their arch-rivals.Both only apply if Pakistan beat Bangladesh on Sunday in their last Super 12 match of the ICC T20 World Cup.

As things stand, India and South Africa are favourite to qualify for the knockouts from Group 2. India are leading the table with six points, while South Africa are in the second spot with five points after four games each.On the other hand, Pakistan are in the fifth position at the table, having just two points despite playing the same number of games.

On the ropes at 43-4 early in their innings, Pakistan rallied behind spectacular half-centuries from Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan to post 185 for nine and delight the lively crowd of 30,000 roaring them on at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

South Africa would still have fancied their chances but Shaheen Afridi (3-14) claimed two early wickets and Shadab removed Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram, who had built a promising third-wicket partnership of 49, in quick order.

While Pakistan skipper Azam’s miserable tournament continued with six runs that left his tally at 14 from four innings, his South African counterpart Bavuma shrugged off the early loss of opening partner Quinton de Kock for a duck.

Bavuma, whose previous three innings at the tournament had earned him 14 runs, hit a dogged 36 before being caught behind off Shadab’s first delivery.

Markram was bowled for 20 two balls later and after the rain break seamers Afridi, Mohammad Wasim and Naseem Shah successfully shackled the South Africans while chipping away with regular wickets.