Lance Klusener won his power battle with pace sensation Shoaib Akhtar at Nottingham on Saturday as South Africa salvaged their World Cup campaign with a stunning three-wicket victory against favourites Pakistan.
Hansie Cronje's side looked dead and buried after collapsing to 58 for five as they chased Pakistan's 220 for seven in the second-round encounter. But Jacques Kallis (54) hung around to put on 77 with Shaun Pollock (30) before all-rounder Klusener, grabbing his fourth man-of-the-match award of the tournament, thrashed 46 not out off 41 balls, including three fours and three sixes.
South Africa won with six balls to go. They had needed 44 to win off five overs with seven wickets down when Klusener took matters into his own hands. The key came in the 46th over when he pulled Akhtar for six over square leg as 17 came off six balls. Another six by Klusener off Wasim Akram, copied in the penultimate over by Mark Boucher off Saqlain Mushtaq's off spin, settled matters.
The victory extended South Africa's winning sequence against Pakistan to an extraordinary 13. Both sides, regarded as the best two squads in the tournament, now have four points, with two games of the Super Six phase to go. Six points will give them a good chance of reaching the semi-finals.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)