Pakistan got their five-match series against South Africa off to the perfect start with a commanding five-wicket in the first ODI at Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

The visitors restricted the Proteas to 266-2 in their 50 overs before securing victory with five balls to spare at St. George’s Park.

Shadab Khan was one of the key performers for Pakistan with the ball with figures of 1-41 from his 10 overs. Here, we take a closer look at the young spinner’s bowling performance.

STATISTICS

OVERS BOWLED: 10

RUNS CONCEDED: 41

WICKETS: 1

MAIDENS: 0

ECONOMY-RATE: 4.10

30-SECOND REPORT

With South African openers Reeza Hendricks and Hashim Amla getting off to a flying start, Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed turned towards Shadab Khan to provide the breakthrough. The leg-spinner wasted no time in delivering as he got the better of Hendricks in just his second over of the innings.

There would be no further wickets from Shadab but the youngster managed to dry up the flow of runs and was extremely economical.

GOT RIGHT

With the wicket playing a little slow, Shadab was in his elements as he extracted sharp turn and bounce to keep the Proteas batsmen at bay. He was not afraid to pitch the ball up and give it some air and that was what helped him get a top edge from Hendricks that was pouched safely by Hasan Ali.

Despite not getting any more wickets, the leggie was hard to score off with his impeccable lines and lengths and as a result he conceded only three boundaries from his 10 overs.

He got the ball to turn away sharply from the right-handers and had Amla and Rassie van der Dussen beaten multiple times.

GOT WRONG

There wasn’t much to fault in the leg-spinner’s efforts on Saturday with his bowling working a treat on the slower St.George’s Park surface. He would have loved a few more in the wickets column but the fact that he was able to stop two set batsmen in Amla and Dussen from scoring freely is a commendable effort.

VERDICT – 8/10

On a pitch where wickets were hard to come by for the bowlers, Shadab performed as well as he could have. His dismissal of Hendricks prevented the openers from running riot after their strong start and his economical bowling in the middle overs put the brakes on South Africa’s scoring rate.

Along with Hasan Ali, Shadab was the best Pakistan bowler in Port Elizabeth and his skipper could not have asked for more.

He also showed his all-round prowess with a crucial unbeaten innings of 18 to help Pakistan cross the finish line in the chase of 267.