South Africa have added 'Mental Resolute' to their armoury as they stuck tight to defend their total. Pakistan have added 'Belief' to their armoury as they almost chased down a steep 316. South Africa have won the series 2-0 with one game left!
Both teams have identified match winners and on that positive note we shall say goodbye to you. I, Manan Mehta your man for the last 8 hours, would like to sign off on behalf of my co-commentators Ajay Pal Singh and Mohammad Anab. A big shout out for our scorer Bishal Mandal and statistician Aman! Goodnight, Sweet Dreams!!! Adios!
Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa Women Captain): "Yeahh tough second half in the game. Many different phases, they started well, we pulled it back with our spinners, then Sidra whacked it a little but a long game, nonetheless.
Still one more game and hopefully others get some batting time. We do have two warm up games in India, but I don't complain about Brits getting back-to-back hundreds.
We do need to hold on to our catches and make sure everyone gets some good game time with some rotation in the squad."
Fatima Sana (Pakistan Women Captain): "We are improving as a team. We played such a great game of cricket tonight.
I think our batting side is doing great. We need more discipline in our bowling. In the death overs, we didn't execute our batting plans. We need some power hitting in the slog overs.
We will try to win the next game and execute our plans."
POTM (Tazmin Brits): "I am going to give credit to the management for my back-to-back century. We are having a few extra batting camps and that is helping us to work on our skills.
I spoke to my batting coach and planned how to play differently here today. Good that it paid off.
We are fortunate to have a lot of batters and it allows me to play freely.
I am glad we have a batting coach. I am more of a 'see the ball and hit the ball' type player but our batting coach reminds us that we are in the subcontinent. Thanks to him."
Player of the Match: Tazmin Brits
Time for post-match presentations...
11:53 IST, 11:23 Local Time: And that's how we come to the end of this long and grueling ODI. South Africa holds their nerve eventually to sneak out a 25-run win! South Africa was put into bat by Pakistan early in the afternoon in some testing conditions. It was quite humid and the bowlers and fielders from Pakistan were struggling big time.
They just didn't look penetrative and both Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits looked unstoppable. Brits brought up a beautiful looking 100 with some extravagant shots around the ground. There was a slight rain delay and once the players were back after an hour's break, it was Wolvaardt's turn to raise her bat as she got to a magnificent 100 herself.
That's when Pakistan picked up two wickets in two balls and that was all they could cheer about in their bowling effort. Despite those two wickets, Brits was unstoppable and ended with a massive 171* next to her name. 3rd back-to-back 100 for her. South Africa ended with a massive 292 on the board in the allotted 46 overs and DLS made the target steeper as it showed 316 for Pakistan.
The start wasn't ideal as the hosts lost Muneeba Ali to an iffy LBW decision. However, post that there were three solid partnerships with one name common in all. Sidra Ameen. First with Omaima Sohail who too hit some exquisite drives. Then with Aliya Riaz briefly. And finally with Natalia Pervaiz as the pair stitched 146 off just 112 balls. Ameen was lucky as she got multiple chances with the fielders spilling her catches.
She rode her luck and with some eye-catching strokes around those chances brought up her second ton in two games! Pakistan was looking in control while she was out there. However, she misses a straight one to get bowled on 122 and the batting innings just collapsed.
Captain Fatima Sana couldn't contribute much, and Natalia Pervaiz too fell for a good but not enough 73! The tail couldn't last for long as Pakistan from 247/3 got bowled out for just 287. 7 wickets for 40 runs as they fell short by 25. A great effort in the end, that too just before a World Cup. It was a mentally draining game for both sides.
That's it! Proteas have won this match by 25 runs (DLS method). They now go up 2-0 in the series. A very spirited show put up by Pakistan tonight.