Sydney

Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan's sensational fifties followed by Shaheen Shah Afridi's three-wicket haul guided Pakistan to a 33-run victory over South Africa in a rain-curtailed do-or-die match in their Super 12 encounter of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup at the SCG in Sydney on Thursday.

In the rain-curtailed 14-over match, skipper Temba Bavuma top-scored for South Africa with 36 off 19 while Aiden Markram played a knock of 20 runs in 14 deliveries.

For Pakistan Shaheen bagged three wickets while Shadab Khan scalped two.

With this comprehensive victory over the Proteas, Pakistan have kept their hopes for a semifinal qualification alive.

With the win, Pakistan claimed third place in the Group 2 points table with four points.

Even after this defeat South Africa are placed second in the points table with five points in their hands.

Chasing a competitive target of 186, South Africa got off to a bad start as they lost their opener Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw under three overs leaving the side tottering at 16/2.

Pakistan's star pacer Shaheen Afridi struck in the very first over of the innings as he dismissed de Kock for zero. In the third over of the innings, Afridi produced a stunning short and wide outside-off delivery to send Rossouw packing for 7 runs.

After 9 overs rain stopped play, with Tristan Stubbs and Heinrich Klaasen at the crease. South Africa's score read 69/4. At that point Pakistan were 16 runs ahead on Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method.

After play resumed, the South African innings was reduced to 14 overs, with a DLS target of 142. That meant the Proteas needed 73 from their remaining five overs.

Eventually, the equation went down to Proteas needing 43 runs in 12 balls. Naseem Shah's slower ball removed Stubbs for 18 off 18 in the 13th over of the game. In the last over South Africa's batters could only manage to score 7 runs and handed a 33-run win to Pakistan.

Earlier, Pakistan posted a challenging total of 185/9 with the help of brilliant fifties from Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed.

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Shadab scored a blazing fifty off just 20 balls to help Pakistan recover from the early setback by Protea pacers. Iftikhar also scored 51 playing the role of anchor to help his team end with a decent score.

Shadab Khan was declared the man of the match for his all-round display.