Pakistan managed to stay afloat in the ongoing World Cup with a 49-run win over South Africa at Lord’s on Sunday.

The victory doesn’t only keep their hopes of making the semi-finals alive, it also comes as a big boost after the drubbing at the hands of arch-rivals India in their last match. No doubt then that captain Sarfaraz Ahmed was a happy man at the end of the match and called it a complete performance.

“I think it’s a complete team performance… Credit to the openers. They played really well. Then Babar (Azam) took over. And Haris Sohail put in a great performance,” Sarfaraz said.

Electing to bat first, Pakistan openers Imam-ul Haq and Fakhar Zaman collaborated for an 81-run stand. Both Imam and Fakhar made identical scores of 44 each. Babar then scored a watchful 69 off 80 balls, before Haris exploded with an innings of 89 off 59 balls to take the team score to 308 for seven.

Interestingly, this was Haris’s second game of the tournament. Asked about his inclusion in the playing XI, the Pakistan captain said: “I think a couple of team combinations in the earlier games didn’t allow us to play him before. We changed the combination in this game. That’s the only thing. Sometimes change is good for the team.”

Sarfaraz heaped praise on Haris, terming his innings the deciding factor in the match and also compared his playing style with England’s Jos Buttler.

“Today the way Haris batted, he showed that he is hungry to play. He was the main factor, the turning point for us… The way he batted in the last 15 overs, it was like Jos Buttler,” Sarfaraz said.

South Africa never really found stability in their chase, ending their quota of 50 overs with a score of 259 for nine.

For Pakistan, Wahab Riaz and Shadab Khan picked up three wickets each, while Mohammed Aamir got two.

Praising his bowlers, Sarfaraz said: “It was a complete bowling effort… Credit goes to Aamir, he struck early and did well in the middle overs as well. Shadab was really good in the middle overs.”