Another disastrous batting collapse from the hosts gave South Africa an easy victory in Abu Dhabi.

by Pakpassion Staff (6th November 2013)

Toss: South Africa won the toss and chose to field

Teams:

Pakistan: 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Umar Amin, 6 Umar Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Mohammad Irfan

South Africa:1 Hashim Amla, 2 Quinton de Kock, 3 JP Duminy, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 Faf du Plessis, 6 David Miller, 7 Ryan McLaren, 8 Dale Steynl, 9 Morne Morkel, 10 Lonwabo Tsotsobe, 11 Imran Tahir 
 

With the series tied at 1-1, Abu Dhabi was the venue for the 3rd ODI between Pakistan and South Africa. AB de Villiers won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked like a typical UAE wicket. Both teams made changes to the playing XI – Pakistan replaced Nasir Jamshed with Asad Shafiq while Hasim Amla, Dale Steyn and Quinton de Kock were the new faces for the visitors.

Amla and de Kock were the new opening partnership for South Africa and they got off to a decent start. Both batsmen hit boundaries in the first few overs before Irfan struck with a cracking Yorker that clattered into Amla’s stumps. Du Plessis was the new batsman and it was notable how the pair combated the spinners far better than they had in the previous games. The boundary was found regularly and Wahab Riaz proved to be apreticularly expensive – going for 21 from his first three overs.

As in Dubai, it was Shahid Afridi who got the breakthrough at a vital time, deceiving de Kock who had charged out of his crease and Umar Akmal completed an easy stumping. In his next over, Afridi did it again, this time out-foxing du Plessis with a googly and Akmal made no mistake with the stumping once more. De Villiers joined JP Duminy and the pair looked to rotate the strike as much as possible whilst also picking up the odd boundary. They put on 69 and just as they were looking to attack, Saeed Ajmal fortunately got de Villiers with a long hop that was hit straight to Hafeez in the deep. 

Duminy brought up an excellent 50 shortly after and with David Miller looked to push South Africa beyond 250. Some tight death bowling made that difficult and both batsmen were dismissed in the space of four balls to leave South Africa on 244/5 before the last over. Irfan dismissed Steyn with the first ball of the 50th over before McLaren hit a six and a four to to take South Africa past 250. Irfan got him out with a ball to go and South Africa ended on 259/8 from their allotted overs.

Fall Of Wickets

1-20 (Amla, 4.2 ov), 
2-97 (de Kock, 19.5 ov), 
3-112 (du Plessis, 21.6 ov), 
4-182 (de Villiers, 37.2 ov), 
5-243 (Miller, 47.5 ov), 
6-245 (Duminy, 48.2 ov), 
7-248 (Steyn, 49.1 ov), 
8-258 (McLaren, 49.5 ov)
 

It was always going to be a challenging chase for Pakistan, especially after the debacle of Sharjah, but the new opening combo of Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez started very well. Shehzad punished anything lose and took apart Tsotsobe by smashing three boundaries from the bowler’s second over. He took two more from Morkel’s next over and incredibly Pakistan had reached 50/0 from 8 overs. 

They were quickly brought back down to earth though. Steyn, playing his first game of the series, found Shehzad’s outside edge and Amla took the catch in the slips. Hafeez fell in the next over, driving Morkel uppishly and the catch was well taken by du Plessis. Misbah joined Umar Amin as the pair looked to consolidate after the two quick wickets, but Imran Tahir’s first over helped them get going. Three very loose deliveries were all cashed in on to take Pakistan to 79/2 after 15 overs.

Just as the partnership was beginning to blossom, Tsotsobe came back into the attack and got rid of Amin. A big appeal for a caught behind was initially given not out, but a loud noise when the ball passed the bat meant Amin was on his way following a review. Tahir finally got into his groove and that devilish googly of his did for Misbah. The Pakistan captain took too long to decide upon a review so Pakistan were 89/4 and in some serious bother. Umar Akmal joined Asad Shafiq and both batsmen took their time to get going thanks to some tight bowling. Eventually, an Imran Tahir full toss was chipped back to the bowler by Akmal to leave Pakistan needing a miracle to salvage the game. And if Umar Akmal's wicket was to an ordinary delivery, more humiliation awaited Pakistan as Asad Shafiq decided to chip yet another full toss off Tahir to a grateful fielder! Afridi never looked like he would make a difference today - he was LBW to McLaren - after hanging around for what seemed like an eternity.

Wahab Riaz and Sohail Tanvir then combined together to give Pakistan's reply some semblance of respect. They hit the seemingly unplayable South African bowling attack to all parts of the ground while adding 61 runs but the end was inevitable when Wahab was out caught behind to Morkel. Sohail Tanvir continued his brave fightback but Tahir then claimed his 4th wicket when he had Ajmal LBW which brought in Mohammad Irfan. With time and partners running out, Sohail Tanvir took it upon himself to try and achieve the improbable but Amla ended his ambitions with an easy catch - Pakistan thus lost the match by 68 runs.

Fall Of wickets

1-50 (Ahmed Shehzad, 8.1 ov), 
2-52 (Mohammad Hafeez, 9.6 ov), 
3-86 (Umar Amin, 19.2 ov), 
4-89 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 20.3 ov)
5-106 (Umar Akmal, 26.6 ov), 
6-114 (Asad Shafiq, 28.1 ov), 
7-116 (Shahid Afridi, 29.3 ov),
8-177 (Wahab Riaz, 41.1 ov),
9-182 (Saeed Ajmal, 42.1 ov),
10-191 (Sohail Tanvir, 44.3 ov)
 

Regardless of how the Pakistani bowlers did or did not fare in this match, the manner of Pakistan's batting capitulation to the South African bowling is the stuff of nightmares for the management. Imran Tahir's continuing domination of top Pakistani batsmen is totally inexplicable and if not addressed will be the difference between the two teams. South Africa have come back strongly and judging by today's performance should be favourites to win the series.

The next ODI is on Friday at Abu Dhabi.

  Discuss!