For a tournament that had mostly seen lopsided contests for the first three weeks, South Africa and Pakistan served a thriller in which both teams at various stages were brilliant, amateur and somewhere in between as well.
It was the perfect final game of the World Cup at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, where a nearly 30,000-strong crowd cheered both teams enthusiastically, appreciating quality cricket.
In the end, Temba Bavuma’s men somehow prevailed despite making a mess of a straightforward chase. While the one-wicket win has almost sealed the African nation’s place in the last four, the Proteas again showed their propensity to panic and make a hash of things unprovoked.
