South Africa took the first giant step towards shedding the eternal chokers tag as they pushed Babar Azam-led Pakistan towards the World Cup exit door, winning a humdinger of a contest by single wicket in Chennai.
This is South Africa's first World Cup win against the Men in Green since the 1999 edition and Pakistan slipped to its fourth loss on trot for the first time in global event.
Pakistan chose to bat as skipper Babar and Saud Shakeel struck fifties but the other batters frittered away good starts to be bowled out for a below-par 270. The last five wickets fell for 45 runs as Tabraiz Shamsi shone with figures of 4-60.
What looked like a straightforward chase became the closest tournament game so far as Proteas slumped from 235 for 5 to 260 for 9, courtesy of Shaheen Shah Afridi (3/45) and Haris Rauf (2/62).
However, Keshav Maharaj (7 not out) and Tabraiz Shamsi (4 not out) added the 11 most precious runs to notch up a special win in 47.2 overs and also take the team to top of points table with 10 points.
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