Pakistan Become First Team To Whitewash South Africa On Their Home Soil, Seal ODI Series 3-0

Pakistan beat South Africa in the final ODI of the three-match series and became the first team to beat Proteas in South Africa.

Johannesburg:The rampaging Pakistan side thrashed hosts South Africa in the third ODI by 36 runs via the DLS method at The Wanderers Stadium on Sunday, December 22, 2024, and sealed the series 3-0. With this emphatic victory, Pakistan became the first team to whitewash South Africa at their home in ODI cricket. Notably, this was the bilateral series win for Pakistan in South Africa.

The Pakistan side dominated the entire series, especially with the bat, continuing their stellar performances under the new white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan from the last three series, starting from the Australia tour, Zimbabwe tour and now here against Proteas. This series win means Pakistan have now won five bilateral series in a row after beating New Zealand, Afghanistan, Australia and Zimbabwe.

The Champions Trophy is around the corner and Pakistan, who are the official hosts of the marquee event, would be delighted with these results and looks favourites to defend the title, having won it in the last edition against India in 2017.

South Africa have a lot to ponder over. Their top order remained silent throughout the series. Heinrich Klaasen came, Klaasen mesmerized and Klaasen went but it was never enough, it wasn't the story for one match, but for the entire series. When you are playing with a relatively inexperienced bowling lineup, getting runs on the board becomes more important, which didn't happen for South Africa throughout this series. They needed someone else to take the baton ahead. Marco Jansen tried, and Corbin Bosch tried it in the third and final ODI but they still fell way too short.

The loss means South Africa have won only one out of three ODI series this year, after also losing to Afghanistan in Sharjah, and two out of six ODI series under white-ball coach Rob Walter, who took over in February 2023.

Coming to the match front, Once again, it was southpaw opener Saim Ayub who starred with bat and ball by scoring a second hundred of the series and with figures of 1 for 34. Debutant wrist spinner Sufiyan Muqeem took 4 for 52 to again ask questions of South Africa's ability against spin.

Apart from them, Pakistan got notable contributions from their former and current captains Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, scoring fifties each. Salman Agha's quickfire 48 off 33 balls helped the visitors pass the 300-run mark. Then, Muqeem received great support in the bowling from the experienced pace trio of Shaheen Shah Afridi (2/71), Naseem Shah (63/2), and Mohammad Hasnain (1/41).

Chasing a 309-run target, the hosts were bowled out for 271 runs, with Klassen being the leading run scorer for the Proteas with 81 runs and ended up losing their third consecutive match against Pakistan.