South Africa edged past Pakistan in a last-ball thriller to register a six-wicket victory in a warm-up match in the T20 World Cup 2021 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Top-order batter Rassie Van Der Dussen stole away the limelight as he guided his team to a win, scoring a boundary off Hasan Ali on the last ball of the 20th over. The match went down to the wire in a high-scoring encounter. Pakistan kept things tight as South Africa needed 19 runs off the last six balls. Van Der Dussen and David Miller had an uphill task at hand on a slow and dry track in Abu Dhabi. However, both batters came out all guns blazing, with each hitting a six inside the first three balls of the over.

Pakistan still weren’t out of the game completely as they needed to defend five runs off the final two deliveries. But Van Der Dussen, batting on 93 runs, had other ideas. The explosive right-hander blasted two consecutive boundaries to help South Africa get over the opposition’s target of 187 runs in some style.

In the process, Van Der Dussen also brought up his hundred in 51 balls. The ICC posted a video of the finish of the exciting contest between South Africa and Pakistan.

The caption said, “RASSIE VAN DER DUSSEN TAKE A BOW. 101* from 51 deliveries to seal the win for South Africa on the last ball.”

Batting first, Pakistan posted a challenging 186/6 in their 20 overs. Fakhar Zaman played a 52-run quick-fire knock in just 28 balls. Kagiso Rabada bowled brilliantly to finish with three wickets.

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Apart from Van Der Dussen, batter Temba Bavuma contributed with a fine knock of 46 runs in 42 balls.

This was South Africa’s second victory in as many warm-up matches. Earlier, they had defeated Afghanistan by 41 runs.

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