First T20: Pakistan wins by three runs after a thrilling contest

In the first match of the three-match T20 series, Pakistan defeated South Africa by three runs after a nerve-wracking contest.

Pakistan gave the Proteas a target of 170 runs.

Janiemann Milan and Reza Hendricks from the Proteas made a smoky start to the innings but Milan scored 44 runs and was bowled by Usman Qadir.

After that, Jacques Sunman also became the target of Usman Qadir's googly and became bold.

Veteran batsman David Miller also could not get ahead of Pakistani bowlers and was caught by Faheem Ashraf after scoring only six runs.

Henrik Klaassen also managed to score only 12 runs, he was dismissed by Harris Rove. Hendricks scored 54 runs and was run out by Rizwan.

Fellows were also caught for 14 runs. However, Dwayne Pretoris and Fortune tried their best to win the match but Faheem Ashraf successfully defended 19 runs in the last over.

Usman Qadir and Haris Rauf took two wickets each for Pakistan.

Earlier, Mohammad Rizwan scored a magnificent century for the Green Shirts and remained unbeaten on 104 runs. His innings included seven sixes and six fours.

He has become the second wicketkeeper-batsman in the world and the first Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman to score a century in all three formats after Brendon McCullum.

However, the Pakistani openers continued to fail in this match and Babar Azam was run out on the second ball of the first over. After that Muhammad Rizwan and Haider Ali increased the score a little, but Haider was caught out for just 21 runs.

After that, Hassan Talat could not do anything special and scored 15 runs and was stamped out on the ball of Shamsi.

Iftikhar Ahmed also managed to score only four runs and became the target of Fortune. Khushdal Shah also managed to score only 12 runs and got out on the ball of Sampala.

While Faheem Ashraf scored four runs and was caught on the ball of Fellows.

Fellows took two wickets for South Africa.

In the first match of the three-match T20 series, the Proteas captain won the toss and elected to bowl first.

After losing the toss in the match being played at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on Thursday, captain Babar Azam said that we do not have two important bowlers in the match, T20 matches need to be decided soon.

The Green Shirts are in high spirits after a historic two-nil victory in the Test series, while the Pakistani team is also a favorite against rival South Africa as the Proteas have fielded a brand new team in the T20 series.

It may be recalled that the South African Cricket Board had decided to rest its senior players in the T20 matches for the series against Australia, however, their series with Australia was later canceled.

"His team will be under a lot of pressure," said David Miller, the most experienced player in the South African squad.

However, the South African team has not lost the T20 series to Pakistan so far.

On the other hand, the series will be beneficial for the Pakistan team in the sense that the players will have the opportunity to prepare for the PIn the first match of the three-match T20 series, Pakistan defeated South Africa by three runs after a nerve-wracking contest.