South Africa 183 (Wayne Parnell 56, David Miller 37, Saeed Ajmal 4-30, Shahid Afridi 3-37) beat Pakistan 182 (Ahmed Shehzad 58, Misbah-ul-Haq 31, Wayne Parnell 3-41, Imran Tahir 3-45) by one run.
The devastating bowling from the visiting South African bowlers ripped through the perishable batting line up of Pakistan and clinched an unbelievable victory.
The Proteas scored183 runs in 49.5 overs and the Green Shirts were bowled out for 182 with 21 balls to spare.
Wayne Parnell (South Africa) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his excellent all round performance.
The first One Day International of the five match series was held at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, on Wednesday, October 30, 2013.
Earlier, AB de Villiers won the toss for South Africa, opted to bad and their first wicket was lost without a run on board. Graeme Smith and Jean-Paul Duminy were gone after scoring 20 runs each as Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi penetrated through their middle order batting. The Proteas were reeling at 6-86 when David Miller along with Wayne Parnell put the brakes on and crept to 125 as the first was gone for 37. Parnell took charge and added few valuable runs with little partnerships and completed his maiden ODI fifty in the process. He was the 9th batsman who went back to the pavilion for 56 as the visitors reached 183 with one ball to spare.
Saeed Ajmal was the star performer with four wickets, Shahid Afridi held three, Sohail Tanvir got two and Mohammad Irfan chipped in with one wicket.
The Green Shirts surrendered their first wicket at four as Mohammad Hafeez joined in with Ahmed Shehzad. They kept the score board moving with regular boundaries and enhanced the score to 75 when the first was caught behind by AB de Villiers off Parnell for 28. The Pakistani Skipper, Misbah-ul-Haq walked in next while Ahmed Shehzad attained his third ODI half century. The latter returned to the dressing room for 58 and Misbah-ul-Haq was dismissed for 31. The hosts required 49 runs from the last 85 deliveries while Umar Amin and Umar Akmal enhanced the score to 165. The Proteas came back in the game by grabbing last six wickets for just 17 runs and won the match by one mere run.
Wayne Parnell and Imran Tahir were the chief wicket takers with three each whereas Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe shared two wickets each.
South Africa won the first One Day International by just one run and leads the five match series 1-0.
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