In the end it was a very poor batting performance by Pakistan with shot selection and general attitude a problem that cost them the match.

Toss: South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first.

Teams:

Pakistan: Imran Farhat , Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez , Umar Amin , Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik , Kamran Akmal , Saeed Ajmal , Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan.

South Africa: Colin Ingram , Hashim Amla , F Du Plessis , AB de Villiers , David Miller , Ryan McLaren , Robin Peterson, Chris Morris, Aaron Phangiso, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

South Africa Innings :

South Africa won the toss and decided to bat first. Obviously the plan by the Proteas would have been to put a decent total on the board and then put pressure on the opposition by some good bowling.

Hashim Amla and Colin Ingram opened the innings for South Africa. Both the openers did well against two left arm seamers i.e. Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan. Hashim Amla was dropped by Umar Amin in the 5th over off Irfan when the batsman smashed a short and wide delivery outside off stump but that was hit so hard that the fielder could not get hold of it.

Both the batsmen did well not to lose their wickets in the opening overs. By the end of 10 overs, South Africa was 36/0.

Hafeez and Wahab Riaz were introduced as replacements for the two opening fast bowlers. Hafeez finally broke the partnership which was creating problems and frustration for the bowlers. He got rid of Colin Ingram by bowling the arm ball. Ingram tried to sweep the ball but he missed it and he was plumb lbw. By the end of 16 overs Proteas were 59/1. Du Plessis joined Amla on the crease.

Hashim Amla once again showed his class with the bat by scoring half century off 66 deliveries. He played some lovely shots including punches off the back foot and front foot.

Du Plessis and Amla formed a good partnership by pushing the ball into the gaps and punishing the bad deliveries for boundaries. Pakistan bowlers badly needed a break through because the current partnership between the two had crossed 50 runs.

Mohammad Irfan struck in his second spell by dismissing Faf Du Plessis. It was a well-directed short delivery which the batsman mistimed and it went straight to the cover fielder. Finally a good partnership of 69 runs came to an end. South Africa were 132/2 in 29 overs.

Saeed Ajmal who was not having the best of his days with the ball finally got rid of the dangerous Hashim Amla. Amla was ready to play the reverse sweep but the ball lofted off his glove and Hafeez took a good low catch at short third man. Amla played a very good knock for his 81 runs.

AB de Villiers and JP Duminy were now knocking the ball around in the gaps in order to preserve their wickets and then launch in the last 8-10 overs. There was a terrible mix up between Duminy and de Villiers and the latter had to depart after scoring brisk 31 runs.

Duminy was run out in the same fashion as de Villiers i.e. he slipped mid-way and a direct hit from Misbah did the trick for Pakistan. By the end of 44 overs South Africa was 199/5. The wickets of de Villiers and Duminy brought Pakistan right back into this game.

Wickets kept on falling at regular intervals for South Africa. Shoaib Malik was expensive in his first over when he was smashed for a six by de Villiers. But then he came back strongly and trapped McLaren leg before wicket in his 6th over.

Robin Peterson and David Miller smashed three boundaries off Junaid Khan in the second last over of the match. On the last ball of Junaid’s over, Misbah took an absolute blinder at cover to send Miller back to the pavilion.

In the last over Morris and Phangiso were run-out by Wahab Riaz and Kamran Akmal respectively. South Africa were restricted to 234 for the loss of nine wickets.

South Africa seemed to be on their way to a high score but some excellent fielding and bowling at the end from the Pakistan side restricted them to an achievable target for Pakistan.


Fall Of Wickets :

1-53(Ingram, 14.2 overs)
2-122 (Du Plessis, 28.2 overs)
3-145(Amla, 31.4 overs)
4-186(de Villiers, 40.5 overs)
5-195(Duminy, 42.6 overs)
6-203(McLaren, 45.4 overs)
7-231(Miller, 48.6 overs)
8-234(Morris, 49.4 overs)
9-234(Phangiso, 49.6 overs)


Pakistan Innings :

Nasir Jamshed and Imran Farhat walked into the middle possibly with the intent of not losing early wickets as in the previous match against West Indies.

If that was the plan, it went horribly wrong as Imran Farhat fell prey to the new comer Chris Morris in his first over. That ball pitched on middle and off and just straightened enough to pass between the bat and pad to hit the stumps. Pakistan were 4/1 in 2 overs.

Morris extracted some movement off the seam and Hafeez looked vulnerable against him. Both the opening bowlers bowled very well and restricted the run rate to 2 per over whereas required run rate moved up to 5 per over.

Morris then struck for the second time, this time removing Mohammad Hafeez who was in no position to play the pull shot and Miller at square leg took a simple catch.

From that point the South African seamers did very well maintaining a stranglehold on Pakistan batsmen. They bowled way too short against India but today they pitched the ball in the good and full length area. Pakistan only managed to score 18 runs in first ten overs with the loss of 2 wickets.

Phangiso and McLaren were introduced later on in the game replacing Tsotsobe and Morris. Shoaib Malik was pushed up the order in place of young Umar Amin.

Shoaib Malik and Nasir Jamshed blocked the first ten overs and then concentrated on singles and doubles. When both the batsmen were looking settled on the crease, Duminy struck getting rid of Shoaib Malik who was out when the ball rolled back onto his stumps - a weak defensive shot or plain bad luck - it did not matter as by the end of 18 overs, Pakistan were 48/3.

Misbah-ul-Haq provided some stability as he normally does. The ghost of Mohali propably lurking in his mind. He nudged the ball into the gaps for singles and doubles with the eventual goal of acceleration as he approached the target. He was also well supported by Jamshed at the other end.

However as against West Indies, Nasir Jamshed once again was dismissed softly. It was a slow ball and Jamshed miscued it returning a low catch to Tsotsobe. Wickets kept on falling at regular intervals for Pakistan. There were no big partnerships. 43 run partnership between Misbah and Amin was broken when Amin tried to pull one but did not get hold of it. McLaren struck in the similar over when Kamran Akmal smashed a wide delivery straight to the point fielder - Pakistan were struggling at 141/6 in 40 overs.

The decisive blow was struck by Tsotsobe in 42nd over when he got the golden wicket of Misbah-ul-Haq. Misbah did not get any support from other end and the increasing run rate forced him to slog. Wahab Riaz was the next to depart. McLaren got wickets of Ajmal and Junaid finishing off things in style for the Proteas. Pakistan were dismissed for 167 runs in 45 overs.

Fall Of Wickets:

1-4(Farhat, 1.5 overs)
2-18(Hafeez, 7.5 overs)
3-48(Malik, 17.3 overs)
4-86(Jamshed, 27.2 overs)
5-129(Amin, 38.2 overs)
6-134(Kamran, 38.6 overs)
7-148(Misbah, 41.3 overs)
8-162(Wahab, 42.4 overs)
9-167(Ajmal, 44.1 overs)
10-167(Junaid, 44.6 overs)


Summary


In the end it was a very poor batting performance by Pakistan with shot selection and general attitude a problem that cost them the match. However, one must also give credit for good bowling by the Proteas seamers who were missing the firepower of Steyn and Morkel but still made themselves count.

Pakistan have now an outside chance of going through to the next stage if West Indies beats India and South African in their group encounters and Pakistan beat India by a high margin.

A lot of soul searching to be done by Pakistan management and the players but for the moment, Pakistani fans have to live through yet another disappointment in an ICC tournament.