South Africa vs Pakistan, 5th ODI - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: Pakistan tour of South Africa, 2018-19 Venue: Newlands, Cape Town Date & Time: Jan 30, 01:00 PM LOCAL

Quinton de Kock brought up his 18th ODI fifty © Getty

Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen have wrapped up the requirements, with both of them bringing up their respective fifties in the 40th over. In an all-round show of dominance, South Africa have won the decider by 7 wickets to win 3-2.

Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen have revived South Africa's chase and placed them comfortably with a half-century stand.

Quinton de Kock, who was cruising towards a century, is out in an attempt to clear the boundary. The southpaw fails to middle the ball and Hasan Ali takes a superb catch running backwards. Third wicket down but Pakistan need a few more to shift the momentum in their favour.

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Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman have stitched a fluent fifty-run stand, taking away the initiative South Africa had with the early wicket.

DROPPED! Kagiso Rabada is bowling with some steam. He managed to induce an edge off Imam ul Haq's bat only for Hashim Amla to drop a straight one at slips.

Babar Azam is in superb form. He has played a couple of excellent drives to pick boundaries and lift Pakistan's scoring rate over run-a-ball after a slow start.

South Africa have fielded five pacers and only one spinner in today's game. Imran Tahir hasn't been able to do much with the new ball. Do you think it was a good idea to open the bowling with him?

Imam ul Haq, who has been in superb form in this series, falls early. Undone by Daale Steyn's bounce, he top edges a pull to the third man fielder. Early strike for South Africa.

Imam ul Haq and Fakhar Zaman have walked out to open the innings for South Africa. Dale Steyn and Imran Tahir take the two new balls.

Toss

South Africa elect to field. Wiaan Mulder, who was drafted into the squad ahead of this game, makes the XI. As does Dwaine Pretorius. David Miller and Beuran Hendricks miss out. Pakistan are unchanged.

Teams:

South Africa (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Hashim Amla, Reeza Hendricks, Faf du Plessis(c), Rassie van der Dussen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Willem Mulder, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir

Pakistan (Playing XI): Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Afridi, Usman Khan

Build up

Hello. I hope you are seated some place nice with a half decent view. Because you'll likely need a lot of endurance and self restraint with all these gorgeous shots of the Table Mountain that the television producers are throwing up.

South Africa and Pakistan will be looking beyond geography and into what lies ahead in a matter of months for them. This fifth ODI at Newlands is an ideal metric to evaluate their World Cup readiness!

It's a big game for both the teams. Let's start with South Africa. It's exactly a year to the day Faf du Plessis proclaimed his 'Mission 2019' - a holistic one-year plan of preparation that also involved getting players media ready so that even a casual utterance of the C-word is not morale sapping. To their credit, South Africa have had little problems dealing with deciders in bilateral ODIs having won each of their last five such game dating back to September 2015. It's the world events that somehow gets the better of them. Not anymore, they believe.

Pakistan being Pakistan care little about reputation or statistics. They forced this decider ending South Africa's unbeaten streak in Pink ODIs and did so without their regular captain. They now stare in the face of a series victory, knowing fully well that victory here will send more than a little message to the favourites - England and India!

The World Cup trophy is at Newlands on its pre-tournament tour. But it's not what they will be playing for. There's a smaller trophy and some massive credentials up for gain!