Babar, Shaheen seal series for Pakistan

Pakistan's home crowd finally got what they came for: a commanding Babar Azam innings and a series win. His fluent 68 off 47 balls - his 40th 50+ score in the T20I format - was the bedrock of the hosts' chase of 140 against South Africa in Lahore, guiding Pakistan to a four-wicket victory with an over to spare and a 2-1 result in the T20I series.

The night began with Shaheen Afridi at his destructive best, ripping through South Africa's top order in an opening over that stunned the visitors. By the time Babar walked off to a standing ovation, the Gaddafi Stadium crowd had seen both their biggest stars in full flow.

Shaheen set the tone from the outset after Pakistan elected to bowl, dismissing Quinton de Kock and Lhuan-dre Pretorius in a superb first over. De Kock was undone by late movement that brought the ball back into him and kissed the inside edge onto the stumps, before Pretorius picked out short fine leg first ball. Shaheen nearly had a third when a sharp in-ducker rapped Dewald Brevis on the knee, only for DRS to show it had bounced too high. South Africa crawled to 22 for 2 in the PowerPlay, their third-lowest in T20I history.

Reeza Hendricks led a rebuild with 38 off 34, and little knocks from Brevis and Donovan Ferreira gave South Africa some momentum through the middle overs. Mohammad Nawaz, introduced after the PowerPlay, was taken on by both batters, leaking 38 runs in his three overs. But Faheem Ashraf's double strike stalled the visitors again, and when Bosch ran out of partners, his unbeaten 30 off 23 only carried them to 139 for 8, a total that always looked light once early movement vanished.

Pakistan's reply began shakily as Saim Ayub fell for a six-ball duck and South Africa's new-ball pair kept things tight. Corbin Bosch and George Linde operated with discipline to push the asking rate close to eight by the eighth over. But Babar, playing with a calm control that had eluded him for a while, kept the innings ticking through precise placement and quick running.

He found his rhythm with a series of sweetly timed boundaries, including three off the sweep. Alongside Agha Salman, he rebuilt steadily, their 76-run stand in 52 balls effectively sealing the contest. Babar brought up his first T20I fifty since May 2024 with a crisp stroke past cover, and by the time both fell within five runs of each other near the finish, the game was long gone from South Africa's reach.

For Pakistan, this was a performance that stitched together two of their most trusted threads: Shaheen's early breakthroughs and Babar's serene chasecraft. After a period of inconsistency, it gave their supporters a glimpse of the side's familiar backbone, and the celebration at Gaddafi told its own story.

Brief scores: South Africa 139/8 in 20 overs (Reeza Hendricks 34; Shaheen Afridi 3-26) lost to Pakistan 140/6 in 19 overs (Babar Azam 68*; Corbin Bosch 2-24) by 4 wickets