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South Africa thrashed Pakistan
South Africa defeated Pakistan by 67 runs in their Group B match of the ICC Champions Trophy at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Monday.
Chasing 235 to win, Pakistan managed just 167, getting dismissed with five overs in their innings left to be bowled.
Both the sides needed to win the contest to remain in hunt for a semi-final berth.
Pakistan bowlers restricted South Africa
Pakistan rode on intermittent strikes to restrict South Africa to 234 for nine.
Despite a splendid job by Pakistani pacers upfront, South African batsmen did succeed in getting good starts, however, they were guilty of not converting those into big knocks.
Pakistani pacemen were not unplayable but they did extract good bounce off the pitch to trouble the Proteas. Spinners Saeed Ajmal and Mahammed Hafeez too played a part in stifling the Proteas innings.
Amla top-scored with 81
Prolific batsman Hashim Amla (81) crafted a superb half-century.
Amla, who has been scoring consistently for South Africa, was his usual composed self as he rotated the strike well and formed a good stand with Faf du Plessis after the side had lost opener Colin Ingram (20), who was trapped by Hafeez.
Amla and Plessis and added 69 runs for the second wicket, before the latter was dismissed. Amla too gifted his wicket on a extravagant shot, a reverse sweep, as he was batting confidently and hardly looked like troubled by any bowler.
His 81 came off 97 balls with nine shots to the fence.
De Villiers made 31
Faf du Plessis (28), skipper AB de Villiers (31) and JP Duminy (24) all departed after making small contributions.
Resultantly, South Africa did not have the kind of batsmen who could get some quick runs to give fillip to the innings towards the end.
Morris made two early breakthroughs
Defending a modest total, South Africa needed a good start with the ball.
And that precisely what Chris Morris provided.
In only his fifth ball, Morris got through the defence of Imran Farhat (2) and in his fourth over had Mohammad Hafeez (7) caught by David Miller.
McLaren picked up four wickets
Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Ryan McLaren then took oer.
Tsotsobe finished with figures of two for 23, picking up the vital wickets of Nasir Jamshed (42) and Misbah-ul-Haq (55).
McLaren, meanwhile, emerged as the top wicket-taker in the innings with figures of four for 19, going through the the Pakistani tail and ending their innings by getting through the defence of Junaid Khan.