South Africa defeated Pakistan by 2 wickets
South Africa defeated Pakistan by 2 wickets in the Centurion Test. With this, the team also made it to the finals of the World Test Championship (WTC). Chasing the target of 148 runs, the home team at one time lost 8 wickets for 99 runs. Here Kagiso Rabada and Marco Janson made a fifty partnership and gave the team a thrilling victory.
Home team was under pressure after Markram and Bavuma
On the fourth day of the Test, South Africa started playing with a score of 27/3. Aiden Markram was out after scoring 37 runs, followed by Bavuma. He scored 40 runs. The team lost 5 wickets for 96 runs, here they needed 52 more runs.
Temba Bavuma scored 40 runs in the second innings. He became the first captain to take South Africa to the WTC final.
Mohammad Abbas, who had taken 4 wickets, sent David Bedingham and Corbin Bosch to the pavilion. Meanwhile, Naseem Shah bowled Kyle Varian. Within no time the team’s score became 8 wickets for 99 runs.
Yanson-Rabada gave a thrilling victory
After losing 8 wickets for 100 runs, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Janson took over South Africa. Both of them first batted cautiously, then started playing shots on bad balls. Rabada scored 30 runs and Yanson scored 16 runs and led the team to victory.
Mohammad Abbas took 6 wickets for Pakistan. Naseem Shah and Khurram Shahzad also got 1 wicket each. Aamer Jamal could not take any wicket, but he gave away 11 runs in just one over.
How did South Africa reach the final?
By defeating Pakistan in the first test, South Africa registered its 7th win in the current cycle of the World Test Championship. The team has 88 points and is at first position with 66.67% points. Now even if the team loses the second test, it will finish on 61.11% points. In such a situation, the stay in top-2 position is confirmed.
India, Australia and Sri Lanka are also in the race to play the final. Among these, only Australia can overtake South Africa by winning all its matches. India and Sri Lanka will not be able to leave South Africa behind even after winning all the matches. Therefore, due to the top-2 position being confirmed, South Africa also made it to the WTC final.
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