Cape Town: A 102-run stand between Mohammad Hafeez and Umar Akmal allowed Pakistan to put on their most competitive batting display in limited-overs matches against South Africa in the last month and break a six-match winless streak. With both batsmen enjoying their first half-centuries in 13 innings, South Africa were required to chase the second-highest total in T20s at Newlands.
Full report to follow
Toss Pakistan chose to bat v South Africa
With a 1-nil lead in the series, South Africa rung in the changes for their final T20 match of the year, at Newlands. AB de Villiers, who was rested for the first match, returned in place of Henry Davids, David Wiese was given his first opportunity in this series while Lonwabo Tsotsobe sat out with illness. Aaron Phangiso, the left-arm spinner, was brought in in place of Imran Tahir.
Pakistan, having opted to bat, made just one change to the team that lost on Wednesday, leaving out the seamer Anwar Ali who struggled to adjust to the conditions and bringing in their premier spinner Saeed Ajmal. With Ajmal back in the attack, Mohammad Hafeez said Pakistan would be comfortable defending whatever score they posted.
Faf du Plessis said he would have preferred to chase anyway. Conditions in Cape Town are not expected to change much throughout the game despite a south-easter blowing in.
South Africa: 1 Hashim Amla 2 Quinton de Kock (wk) 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 JP Duminy, 6 David Miller, 7 David Wiese, 8 Wayne Parnell, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Aaron Phangiso
Pakistan:1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez (capt), 4 Sohaib Maqsood, 5 Umar Amin, 6 Umar Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Bilawal Bhatti, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Junaid Khan.
Pakistan 176 for 4 (Akmal 64, Steyn 2-29) beat South Africa 170 for 4 (Amla 48, Afridi 3-28) by six runs.
