Pakistan's Irfan and Misbah equalize ODI series 1-1

The Centurion ODI last night between visiting Pakistan cricket team and hosts South Africa was a thriller right from start to end. And the mood set by Pakistani fast bowler Irfan culminated in superb performance by Misbah to win the second ODI by six wickets with 28 balls remaining.

Pakistan's Irfan 's 4/33 (left) and Misbah's 57 (right) won the 2nd ODI at Centurion

Winning the toss, South Africa chose to bat. But it wasn't a day for the hosts like the previous ODI as Pakistan's seven footer pace bowler Irfan struck one after the other and sent back four South Africans back to pavilion for 33 runs. Amla was first to crumble at 17, while Ingram was sent back for a duck. De Villiers was back too with four while Plessis  was packed up for 17. Irfan extracted significant bounce from the Centurion surface in an extended seven-over spell.

It was only Behardien (58) and Peterson (44) which stood on the crease and supported their crumbling team and were instrumental in reaching a score of 191. Pakistan's Junaid, Saeed Ajmal and Hafeez bagged two wickets each.

Coming to bat, Pakistan's batsmen this time 'played' responsibly and did not show any signs of slackness which they normally do and supported the efforts of the bowlers by batting well. Although opener Nasir was back with just 10 runs, while Hafeez scored 31 and Younis added 32. However, it was 57 by Misbah and 35 by Shoaib Malik which finally won over the match for Pakistan with 6 wickets and 28 balls remaining.

Irfan, which produced his career best 4/33 was rightly declared the player of the match.

Pakistan now plays its 3rd ODI at Johannesburg on March 17th.

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