Nandre Burger with his maiden four-fer and Lhuan-dre Pretorius with a 40-ball 46 played key roles in the South Africa cricket team’s eight-wicket win over Pakistan in the second game of a three-match series at Faisalabad on Thursday.
Burger, playing in only his 11th match, finished with career-best bowling figures of 4/46 in ODI cricket. In his spell, the 30-year-old left-arm pacer ripped through the Pakistani top-order, dismissing Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan inside the first five overs.
His opening spell helped reduce hosts Pakistan to 22 for 3 and he returned to the attack to claim his fourth wicket of the match at the death by dismissing the dangerous Faheem Ashraf in the 47th over.
Nandre Burger’s opening burst proved to be decisive as Pakistan managed to recover to 269/9, setting the Proteas a target which they chased down with eight wickets and just under 10 overs to spare.
Burger’s spell of 4/46 is his best-ever bowling figures in international white-ball cricket, eclipsing his previous best effort of 3/30, which he registered in an ODI against India in December 2023.
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Lhuan-dre Pretorius, meanwhile, forged an 81-run stand for the first wicket with Quinton de Kock, who went on to score a match-winning 123 in 119 balls. It gave the visitors a solid start in the chase of Pakistan’s 269.
Pretorius, who scored a fifty on his ODI debut on Tuesday against Pakistan, scored his runs at a strike rate of 115. His knock included seven fours and a six.
The 19-year-old Lhuan-dre went on the attack in the second over, slamming Naseem Shah for three fours to up the tempo before the runs flowed steadily off his bat. He was eventually dismissed by caught-behind off the bowling of Mohammad Wasim.
Both Nandre Burger and Lhuan-dre Pretorius are part of the Rajasthan Royals team in the Indian Premier League.
