In a T20 match, what are the percentages of a side batting first and having posted over 200 runs, lose said match, and in one of the most resounding manner, too?
I'm not a statistician, but I can hazard a guess that the percentage would be very low. But it just happened to South Africa in a bilateral series against Pakistan today.
SA posted the score of 203 for five wickets. In any other times, that would've been a winning score, considering that Pakistan could only muster less than 150 in their previous encounter.
In their chase, Pakistan knocked those runs down with two overs to spare. With only one wicket down, too.
In the process, they set a few records for themselves, apparently. The destroyer in chief, PAK's captain Babar Azam hit his maiden century (120+), which also happened to be the fastest one by a PAK batsman, and it was also the first T20 century scored on the ground, which is somewhat ironically named Centurion. The opening stand (197) was second highest in the world ever, although I can't confirm this.
Props to Babar Azam, as he made the chase look super easy. But I'd venture to say that the half of the chase was done for them by South Africa's abysmal bowlers. They had been pretty lacklustre throughout the series, but today had to be their worst display so far. No discipline, no imagination, didn't stick to basics when needed, full tosses when not needed, letting easy singles through... At least there were no no balls this time around, which is a small consolation.
Most of SA's front line bowlers are away in IPL, but that can't be an excuse for this lack of... depth in the side.