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Babar Azam, right, leaves the field with teammates after Pakistan's loss against South Africa. (AP Photo)
NEW DELHI: Pakistan have been pushed towards the exit gate of the ICC World Cup after their one-wicket defeat in the edge-of-the-seat thriller against
South Africa
in Chennai on Friday.
The Pakistan bowlers staged a remarkable comeback to take five wickets for 54 runs when South Africa were on course at 206/4 to overhaul the 271-run target, led by Aiden Markram's 91.
That left South Africa needing 11 runs.
The Proteas had five overs to do that but were just one mistake away from losing the match.
The controversial moment arrived when
Haris Rauf
was bowling to tailender
Tabraiz Shamsi
in the 46th over and the ball thudded into Shamsi's pads. However, the umpire turned down Pakistan's appeal for an LBW.
Skipper
Babar Azam
asked for a review. The replays showed Shamsi adjacent to the stumps when the ball hit his pads, but the ball tracking was not in the bowler's favour as the ball's trajectory showed it to be just clipping Shamsi's leg-stump.
The win put South Africa on top of the points table with 10 points from five wins, ahead of India on net run rate.
Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was livid, expressing his anger over the rule on 'X' (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, Harsha Bhogle felt there's a need to explain the umpire's call again.
Replying to one of Harbhajan's posts, former South Africa captain Graeme Smith showed his soft corner for his team, while referring to an earlier DRS call in the match against South Africa's Rassie van der Dussen.
The victory, which came off a four hit by
Keshav Maharaj
against spinner Mohammad Nawaz, led to wild celebration in the Proteas' camp.
The defeat was Pakistan's fourth successive in the World Cup, after they had begun in fine fashion by winning their first two matches. They now have just four points in six matches.
English (US)