ICC World Cup 2019: Match 30, Pakistan vs South Africa – Sohail’s quick-fire knock, Tahir’s record and more stats

Pakistan overcame criticism after their defeat against India to thump South Africa by 49 runs and registered their 2nd win of the tournament. Haris Sohail’s 59-ball 89 and Babar Azam’s 69 played a key role in pushing Pakistan to 308/7 after electing to bat first. Skipper Faf du Plessis top-scored with 63 but no player from top order scored even at run-a-ball. The pressure kept mounting on the Proteas as they finished with only 259/9 and became the 2nd side to be knocked out of semi-final race.

All the statistical highlights from Pakistan’s convincing 49-run win against South Africa:

Pakistan gets better of South Africa:

2 – Pakistan has defeated South Africa for the 2nd time in a row at the World Cup. The 2015 edition win was their first in the CWC against the South Africans. They lost their first three meetings in the World Cup against them.

A rare moment in CWC for the Proteas:

2 – Only the 2nd time South Africa failed to get past the preliminary round of a World Cup edition. They missed the chance in the 2003 CWC which was hosted by them. Interestingly, 2003 and 2019 are the only CWC editions where the Saffers failed to win their opening game of the tournament.

A tough tournament with the ball:

3 – Number of times South Africa has conceded 300+ in this tournament; the first time they conceded as many as three 300+ totals in an ODI series/tournament. They conceded two 300+ totals in seven bilateral ODI series and once during the 2009 Champions Trophy.

Tahir climbs to the top:

39 – Imran Tahir now has 39 wickets from 20 World Cup games; the most number of wickets by a player in the CWC for South Africa. The leg-spinner went past Allan Donald’s tally of 38 wickets with his 2nd wicket in this game. Tahir’s 39 wickets are also the 2nd most in CWC for a spinner behind Muttiah Muralitharan’s 68.

A quick-fire knock from Sohail:

150.84 – Haris Sohail’s batting strike rate of 150.84 during his 60-ball 89 in this game is the 3rd highest SR in a 50+ score for Pakistan in a World Cup game. Imran Khan scored an unbeaten 33-ball 56 against Sri Lanka in 1983 at an SR of 169.69 while Inzamam-ul-Haq had a strike rate of 162.16 during his 37-ball 60 in the 1992 CWC semis against New Zealand.

A World Cup record:

44 – Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman recorded the highest identical score by openers in a World Cup game as both got out on 44. Namibia’s opening pair of Jan-Berrie Burger and Morne Karg scored 41 apiece against the Netherlands in 2003.

A game of contributions:

1 – For the first time in their World Cup history, Pakistan’s top six batsmen scored at least 20 runs. This is the 9th such instance for Pakistan in ODI format with the last of them coming against Sri Lanka in 2015.

549 – The 549 runs scored by batsmen of both the teams in this game are the 4th most in a World Cup game without an individual century. The game between South Africa and Bangladesh at The Oval earlier in this tournament witnessed a total of 604 runs scored by the batters; the most in a CWC game without an individual ton.