South Africa were unbeaten in PinkDay matches. That changed on Sunday when Pakistan pummeled them by eight wickets in the fourth ODI at the Wanderers.

Here are our five takeaways from that memorable match for the visitors, and not-so-memorable match for the hosts:

Things going down South for African side

It could also have something to do with the hosts' unexpected brilliance, but this South African side looks pretty ordinary. They have their Amla up top; in Faf du Plessis they have another decent batter; they have two express pacers; they have a star leggie and there is Quinton de Kock too. Yet, they all manage to look very beatable as a group.

Some could correctly point out that the series is still level and South Africa can still win it all, but they'd be missing a huge point. The hosts lost the opener; won the second but only because Andile Lucky Phehlukwayo lived up to his middle name; won the rain-hit third through D/L method before being completely outclassed in the latest encounter.

Their tremendous luck has kept them in the series but relying on luck alone in a world cup year does not bode well for a team of South Africa's stature.

Streaky Shinwari at it again

The hosts went from being 119-2 to 164 all-out. When teams melt down at this rate, it's almost always because of silly mistakes rather than masterful plans. But in this case, credit has to be given to Pakistani bowlers and Shoaib Malik's captaincy who attacked aggressively to the point where South Africa finally ran out of luck.

The Africans' tormentor-in-chief, of course, was Usman Shinwari — another one of a wide collection of left-arm pacers in the national pool.

The southpaw from Khyber District has at times been overshadowed by his big-name compatriots but has still given a good account of his ability whenever he's been called upon. Those who've seen his famous interview with Ramiz Raja know of his bubbly personality, and it shows in his work on the pitch as well.

On Sunday, the streaky Shinwari did to South African lower order what he had done to Sri Lankan top order in Oct 2017. That day, he had dismissed four Sri Lankan batters in seven balls. This time he dispatched three in four to wreak havoc you don't recover from.

In 11 career ODIs, Shinwari has 22 wickets at an average of 16.31 per wicket. The sample size is now sizable enough for him to get a continued run in the side and even have a spot on the World Cup-bound flight in the summer.

Amir snaps wicketless streak

The game also saw Mohammad Amir snap his unwanted six-match wicketless streak end. The pacer must have breathed a proverbial sigh of relief when he trapped David Miller in front of wickets.

It's incredible how a bowler once renowned for his wicket taking ability had struggled so much to do just that over an entire calendar year. For context, if you start counting on your fingers the number of wickets Amir's taken since the Champions Trophy final, you will need just four fingers. That's a paltry quartet of scalps in dozen ODIs, yet he's in and Junaid Khan's out. Remind us, why exactly?

Poor nephew Imam

Had he not been shoehorned into the Test squad way ahead of his time, Imamul Haq would have earned the respect and silenced his critics by now.

Two days after his not quite match-winning century, the young Imam knocked another 71 laced with some lovely, confident hits. With a ton and two 50s, he is now the series' leading run-scorer and a frontrunner for the man-of-the-series award. If only a certain family member of his had not stained his CV with premature selection.

Leave Sarfraz alone

Branded a racist, hit with a ban, and then seeing his stand-in lead the side to a dominating victory ... this has not been a great week for Sarfraz Ahmed. But more worrying is the decision to send him home even though he'd have been eligible to lead the side in the final T20I.

The performance under Malik could motivate those hatching sinister plans but they should know that such an upheaval just months away from the biggest tournament in years would be the last thing the team needs.

The writer is a cricket aficionado based in Karachi.