With South Africa and Pakistan level-pegging going into the final fixture of the five-match ODI series on Wednesday, ANITHA MADIKIZELA takes a look at the stats ahead of the series decider at Newlands.

Pakistan were rampant in the Pink Day ODI at the Wanderers and walked away with a thumping eight-wicket win on the back of a rampant bowling attack and a convincing batting display from the Pakistan top order. Both teams will be hoping to secure the series-decider under the mountain and below are the milestones to watch out for at Newlands.

Proteas milestones to watch out for

• Faf du Plessis needs 91 runs to reach 500 runs against Pakistan. He will be hoping to score big runs and eclipse his top score of 57 in the series in order to lead the Proteas to victory.
• Andile Phehlukwayo requires just one more to reach 50 ODI career wickets and he has the perfect opportunity to reach the milestone in Cape Town.
• Dale Steyn is six away from 200 ODI career wickets and could reach the milestone in style by equalling his career-best figures of 6-39, which he achieved in 2013 against Pakistan in Port Elizabeth.
• Aiden Markram has spent the series on the sidelines and still needs 93 more to reach 500 ODI career runs. He will be hoping to get his opportunity in Newlands for the final match and show what he’s capable of as he hopes to cement his ticket for England.
• Hashim Amla is 24 runs away from eclipsing Gary Kirsten’s mark of 1054 runs to become the third-highest run-scorer against Pakistan … and he also needs two more catches to break Jaques Kallis’ record of 18 catches against Pakistan. Amla needs 104 more runs to reach 8000 ODI career runs, and if he get his century under the mountain, he will break away as the Protea with the most centuries against Pakistan. He currently shares the mantle with AB de Villiers, with both batsmen having three ODI centuries to their name.

Pakistan milestones to watch out for

• Shoaib Malik requires 104 runs in order to eclipse Shahid Afridi’s total of 848 runs as Pakistan’s fourth-highest run-scorer against South Africa. He will be keen to reach the record with a century as the stand-in captain following Sarfaraz Ahmed’s ban.
• Shadab Khan still needs three more wickets for 50 ODI career wickets and will need to eclipse his career-best figures of 2-42 against South Africa (achieved in the 4th ODI at Wanderers) to reach the milestone in this series.
• Mohammad Rizwan is 36 runs away from 500 ODI career runs and will hope for a second opportunity to reach the milestone at Newlands after having scored the winning runs in a low-scoring encounter at Wanderers.
• Babar Azam needs 62 more runs to reach 2500 ODI career runs and will hope to get close to his series high score of 69 in order to reach the milestone and add on to his 171 runs in the series so far.
• Sarfaraz needs 58 more runs to reach 2000 ODI career runs, but will not be awarded the opportunity to do so during this series, as he is still serving out his four-match ban issued by the ICC following his onfield comments at Kingsmead.

READ ALSO: Sarfaraz banned for Phehlukwayo chirp 

The series so far

• Imam-ul-Haq has silenced his critics with an emphatic batting display during the series and is the leading run-scorer with 263 runs after the first four matches. Amla is second with 200 and Rassie van der Dussen rounds out third position with 191 runs in the series.
• Phehlukwayo leads the wicket-taker’s department with six dismissals in the series so far, but in close second are Shadab and Shaheen Afridi, both having taken five wickets.

READ PREVIEW: Proteas vs Pakistan (5th ODI)

Photo: Luke Walker/Gallo Images