'Unfair to start a witch-hunt': Arthur warns against blame game after Pakistan flop in World Cup

Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur warned against a "witch-hunt" of his team after their World Cup dream suffered a likely fatal blow on Friday.

Pakistan slipped to a one-wicket loss at the hands of South Africa, their fourth defeat in six games in India.

They will have to win their remaining three matches and hope other results go their way if they are to sneak into the semi-finals.

"They're going to be blaming everybody, don't worry. It's just the way of the world," said Arthur.

"It's really unfair to start a witch-hunt, certainly on (captain) Babar Azam, on 'Inzi' (chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq), on our coaches, on the management team.

"What I do know is the boys have tried and the effort of the coaching staff, the effort of the players has been first-class. If they would see that the amount of effort that the players and staff put in, they would be amazed."

Pakistan, who were ranked as the world's number top ODI team last month, won their first two games of the tournament.

However, they then slumped to defeats against arch-rivals India, Australia and Afghanistan before going down to the Proteas on Friday.