Lee and Kapp help South Africa crush Pakistan in a thriller

In the second of the five T20I played at City Oval, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa's Lee and Kapp rose to the occasion to level the series 1-1.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers Sohail and Rauf made slow but steady start and added 36 runs for the first wicket. The skipper Bismah Maroof walked in at 36-1 and played a blistering inning. She was supported by Sohail who scored 23 and Riaz with 13 runs.

Maroof remained unbeaten with 63 off 47 deliveries which had 9 boundaries in the course of the action. Pakistan ended the inning with 128-5. The skipper Luus picked up two wickets for South Africa.

Chasing 129 to win South Africa needed to make sure that they don't lose early wickets of their experienced batters. In the previous match, they lost their top order too cheaply and the middle order could not cope with the pressure.

This time Lee and Brits ensured that the mistakes were avoided and both the batters went after the bowling. Brits was the first to fall with the score of 31. The experienced Sana Mir took a catch off her own bowling to dismiss Brits for 17.

In the 5th over Kapp walked in ahead of other specialists batters such as du Preez and Tryon. She immediately made sure that the strike was rotated as the boundaries were hard to come by. The pair took more than six overs to register their first boundary.

Once the shackles were off, Lee and Kapp dispatched bad deliveries to the boundary in every over. In the 17th over Lee scored her well deserved 50 with a boundary off Dar. Mir gave away just 5 runs in the 19th over to make the match interesting with South Africa needing 7 runs off the last over.

Kapp smashed first ball to the boundary to bring her 50 in 49 deliveries. On the next ball she took a single and brought Lee on the strike. With just 2 runs needed off 4 deliveries, Lee fell to Dar on 56 in 52 deliveries. With just 2 runs needed of last 2 deliveries, Kapp hit the winning runs to ensure there was no further drama.

Lizelle Lee was declared player of the match for her 56 as South Africa won the match by 8 wickets to level the series 1-1.

Brief Scores

South Africa vs Pakistan

Pakistan 128-5 (Maroof 63*, Sohail 23, Luis 2-29)

South Africa 129-2 in 19.5 overs (Lee 56, Kapp 56*)

South Africa won by 8 wickets.