PAARL: Despite dragging Pakistan out of trouble and taking them across the line in the three-wicket win over South Africa at Boland Park on Tuesday, middle-order batter Sal\u00adman Ali Agha gave opener Saim Ayub the credit for setting it up for the visitors.<\/p>\n
Coming into bat in the 17th over with Pakistan reeling at 4-60 while chasing 240, Salman constructed a 141-run partnership with Saim and went on to smash an unbeaten 82 off 90 to add up to his bowling exploits of 4-32.<\/p>\n
Aided by Salman\u2019s calming presence, Saim gave a vivid display of his prodigious talent with a classy century, his second ton in his seventh ODI.<\/p>\n
In the post-match presentation, Salman said he wanted to give his player-of-the-match away to Saim.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis knock set up the game, if he didn\u2019t play we wouldn\u2019t have won,\u201d said the right-hander. \u201cWe were behind but he scored 100 and it was an amazing feat, he\u00adn\u00adce he deserves the award.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saim, meanwhile, appreciated Salman\u2019s \u201cexperience and company\u201d during the match-winning partnership.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old Saim hit his second ton in his seventh ODI with an elegant 109 off 119 balls to lay the foundation for the win as Pakistan scored 242-7 with three balls to spare in reply to South Africas 239-9 in their 50 overs.<\/p>\n
His stand with Salman turned the game in Paki\u00adstan\u2019s favour as they struggled initially to score and fell behind the required run rate as South Africa\u2019s bowlers held early sway.<\/p>\n
Saim battered South Africa quick Ottniel Baar\u00adtman for 17 runs in four balls in the 35th over to kick start the chase and offer Pakistan sight of the finish line.<\/p>\n
Saim, who struck 10 fours and three sixes, holed out to a catch at deep fine leg off Kagiso Rabada, with 39 runs needed and eight overs remaining.<\/p>\n
Two more wickets then fell quickly to put the brakes on Pakistan\u2019s march, and offered home fans hope of an unlikely comeback, but Salman\u2019s knock saw Pakistan home in a close finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just wanted to take the game as deep as possible and get the boundary when available,\u201d Salman said of his partnership with Saim. \u201cI think Saim\u2019s inni\u00adngs was amazing \u2014 one of the best I\u2019ve seen in a very long time. The way he batted at such a young age, was outstanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so young, yet so mature. Normally, players at his age don\u2019t have such composure, but he\u2019s an outstanding talent. What stood out today was his calmness. He knew exactly what to do in a pressure situation, which is rare for someone his age. He\u2019s one for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heinrich Klaasen made 86 off 97 balls in South Africa\u2019s total of 239 for nine but was forced to play more conservatively than usual after the innings stalled against Salman\u2019s off-spin.<\/p>\n
South Africa made a rapid start with Tony de Zorzi (33) and Ryan Rickelton (36) putting on 70 for the first wicket inside the 10-over power play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PAARL: Despite dragging Pakistan out of trouble and taking them across the line in the three-wicket win over South Africa at Boland Park on Tuesday, middle-order batter Sal\u00adman Ali Agha gave opener Saim Ayub the credit for setting it up for the visitors. Coming into bat in the 17th over with Pakistan reeling at 4-60 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4018,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions\/4018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}