South Africa staged a remarkable comeback to turn what seemed certain defeat into a one-run win over Pakistan in the first day-night international here.
Pakistan, chasing a modest 184 to win, were cruising along nicely at 165-4 but lost their last six wickets for just 17 runs off 39 balls to be bowled out for 182 in 46.3 overs yesterday.
It looked all over with Umar Amin (20) and Umar Akmal (18) at the crease but leg-spinner Imran Tahir (3-45) dismissed Umar, Shahid Afridi (nine) and Wahab Riaz (zero) in succsessive overs to leave Pakistan struggling for the last seven runs.
Last man Mohammad Irfan and Saeed Ajmal added five runs before Morne Morkel (2-23) bowled Irfan to send his team into an unexpected but frenzied celebration, much to the dismay of the 15,000 crowd who came to see Pakistan win.
It was man-of-the-match Wayne Parnell who starred with both bat and ball, hitting a career best 56 before taking 3-41 in his eight overs.
For Pakistan off-spinner Ajmal (4-30) was well supported by leg-spinner Afridi (3-37) as South Africa were bowled out in the final over.
The win gives South Africa a 1-0 lead in the five-match series with the second match in Dubai on Friday.
Pakistan lost opener Nasir Jamshed (nought) early but Shehzad (58) and Mohammad Hafeez (28) shared a 71-run stand for the second wicket to stablise the run-chase.
Even when Hafeez fell, Pakistan never looked in trouble as Misbah-ul Haq (31) and Shehzad took Pakistan to 135 when the innings started to fall apart with Misbah dismissed by Parnell.
The Pakistan skipper hit three fours off 49 balls. When on 28 he reached 4,000 one-day runs with a flurry of boundaries off Tahir. He became the 13th Pakistani batsmen to reach the milestone in his 129th match.
