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             Shahid Afridi inspired Pakistan to a seven-run win over South Africa in their ICC World Twenty20 semifinal at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Thursday.

    Jacques Kallis had kept South Africa in the match with a half-century of his own after his team had been reduced to 50 for three inside nine overs on a wearing pitch.

    Kallis eventually fell for 64 runs off 54 balls in the 18th over when he was caught by Shoaib Malik at long-off off the bowling of off spinner Saeed Ajmal.

    South Africa were left needing 23 runs off the last over of their innings which proved to be too tall an order as the Proteas crashed out of the tournaments.

    Kallis had shared in a 61-run fourth-wicket partnership off 52 balls with JP Duminy with Duminy ending the match not out on 44 off 39 balls but their efforts were not enough in the face of some disciplined bowling from Pakistan.

    Afridi captured two for 16 off four overs while swing bowler Umar Gul extracted appreciable reverse swing to finish with the economical figures of none for 19 off three overs.

    South Africa’s run-chase was stifled by the loss of the three early wickets as the Proteas lost the wickets in the space of 17 balls.

    Graeme Smith (10) was first to go, caught and bowled by left-arm seamer Mohammad Aamer, before Herschelle Gibbs (5) and AB de Villiers (1) were bowled by Afridi.

    Earlier, the left-handed Afridi, who was promoted up the batting order to number three, scored 51 runs off a mere 34 balls with eight fours before he top-edged an attempted slog-sweep off off spinner Duminy and was caught by De Villiers at midwicket.

    Afridi fell in the 13th over with Pakistan on 95 for three but his team-mates failed to capitalise on Afridi’s innings as South Africa’s bowlers found a superb line and length as Pakistan failed to score a boundary off the last five overs of their innings.

    The match got off to an explosive start with two wickets falling in the first three overs while opening batsman Kamran Khan surged to 23 runs off 12 balls before he top-edged an attempted pull shot and was caught at mid-on by Albie Morkel off the bowling of speedster Dale Steyn as Akmal became the second Pakistani wicket to fall.

    Afridi shared in a third-wicket stand of 67 runs off 58 balls with Shoaib Malik with Malik going on to score 34 runs off 39 balls before being caught at long-off off the bowling of left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe.

    Steyn, Van der Merwe, Duminy and left-arm swing bowler Wayne Parnell took a wicket each while Parnell was impressive in conceding just 26 runs off his four overs after his first over went for 14 runs.  

South Africa - Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher (wk), Albie Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe, Johan Botha, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn.

Pakistan - Shahzaib Hasan, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan (capt), Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal.