Ahmed spins out South Africa for 143 as Pakistan wins ODI series 2-1

FAISALABAD Pakistan AP Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed flummoxed inexperienced batters of South Africa with career-best - and led Pakistan to series-clinching seven-wicket preeminence in the third and final ODI on Saturday South Africa which completely won its first toss on the tour of Pakistan after losing seven-in-a-row across formats was bowled out for in overs losing its last eight wickets for just runs Opening batter Saim Ayub then hit a belligerent with fours and a six that carried Pakistan to - in just overs for a - mastery in the series Pakistan won the first meeting narrowly by two wickets and South Africa bounced back with the help of Quinton de Kock s unbeaten century to win the second encounter by eight wickets in Faisalabad which hosted its first international games after years South Africa drew the two-test series - but Pakistan fought back to beat the Proteas - in the T series with back-to-back wins in Lahore Ahmed spins out Proteas The left-handed opening pair of de Kock and Lhuan-dre Pretorius gave South Africa its third successive -plus start before the Proteas got strangled against the spinners on a tricky wicket The pair started cautiously against Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi s left-arm pace and off-spinner Ayub before cutting lose against fast bowler Haris Rauf Rauf who returned after serving two-match ban for violating ICC code of conduct during the Asia Cup in late September was smashed for three boundaries in his first over and de Kock got his first runs with two back-to-back boundaries against Afridi as the pair put on runs Off-spinner Salman Ali Agha provided the breakthrough when he had Pretorius caught at long-on for and shortly afterwards Tony de Zorzi chipped away an easy catch at extra cover De Kock became the second-fastest South African batter to complete ODI runs in innings after Hashim Amla and raised his half century with a reverse sweep against the left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz However only two balls later he tried to slog sweep Nawaz and was out lbw for off balls that triggered a spectacular South African collapse Abrar picked up three wickets in his two overs as he beat debutant Rubin Hermann with a googly and clean bowled the left-hander knocked back the leg stump around the legs of Donovan Ferreira and then hit the off stump of Corbin Bosch of a delivery that kept very low South Africa batters paid heavily for going onto the backfoot against the spinners as Bjorn Fortuin was out plumb leg before wicket against Nawaz who finished with - Afridi then finished off tailenders with two wickets in two balls as South Africa playing without seven front-line white-ball players in the ODI series got bowled out with more than overs to spare Not enough runs we were ostensibly looking at South Africa captain Matthew Breetzke mentioned It was tough conditions and unfortunately we lost too a large number of wickets there Abrar bowled really nicely Unluckily I got out in his last over I was looking to be more positive after that but yeah there was variable bounce Ayub cruises Pakistan Pakistan wobbled early when Fakhar Zaman fell for his second successive duck and was clean bowled by Nandre Burger off his second ball Ayub survived a close lbw against Burger but cut close against the pace as he raced to his half century off balls with Babar Azam also showing signs of returning back into batting rhythm with his trademark cover drives Both added better than run-a-ball for the second wicket stand before Babar got run-out while going for the third run but couldn t beat the throw of Bosch from third and was short of his crease With only required for triumph Ayub holed out to long-on to give left-arm spinner Fortuin consolation wicket as Mohammad Rizwan not out and Agha finished off the event with nearly half the overs to spare It has been teamwork and we have worked very hard across the formats so credit goes to the players Afridi declared after leading Pakistan to conquest in his debut series as ODI skipper We didn t get so much help in the first five-six overs but when the spinners came in they made it tough When you play international cricket you have to be ready for all situations so every athlete who came in took their chances AP cricket https apnews com hub cricket Source