In reality, it’s Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq who must carry the burden for the loss.Not because they’re the most experienced players in the side, but solely due to the nature of their dismissals and the match situation at the time.

By Nasser Khan (19th February, 2013)

Whilst it’s true Umar Gul didn’t have one of his better performances on day four and Tanvir Ahmed was little more than a passenger, the truth is Pakistan had bowled themselves into a winning position after both sides had played one innings each. No significant lead, but scoreboard pressure and the obvious uncertainty Saeed Ajmal extracts from the South African batsmen made it advantage Pakistan.

There were few demons in the pitch or in the atmosphere as Pakistan set out to post a challenging target in the third innings of the match and despite the threat posed by the opposition pacers, 250 runs was achievable. Hafeez isn’t the first opening batsman to be dominated by Dale Steyn – he’s destroyed the confidence of more skilled batsmen than the Pakistani right-hander - and certainly won’t be the last, but the manner in which he’s surrendered his wicket will be worrying for the Pakistani think-tank. Hafeez decided to rest rather than participate in the warm-up match between the first and second Test, allowing Imran Farhat to support Nasir Jamshed instead. His bowling was effective against England in the UAE a year ago, but his ability with the ball is not sufficient to carry his place in the Test side away from home. Hafeez is 32 now, and if his glaring technical deficiencies haven’t been corrected by now, they’re unlikely to ever be.

It’s hard to criticise his opening partner Nasir Jamshed, given it’s his debut series. Dav Whatmore in a press conference admitted he forgets sometimes how inexperienced Jamshed is in the longer format of the game given he has been part of the limited overs’ side for almost a year, but there can be fewer more difficult series for a player to debut than as an opener in South Africa.

In reality, it’s Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq who must carry the burden for the loss. Not because they’re the most experienced players in the side, but solely due to the nature of their dismissals and the match situation at the time. Younis Khan faced Dale Steyn at his best but the South African team’s strategy to unsettle the Pakistani number four has been obvious since the first Test and he should have considered the team rather than trying to counter-attack the opposition’s best bowler in a display of personal aggression. He threw away his wicket and it’s not the first time he’s done so when sledged by the opposition.

Misbah-ul-Haq’s dismissal is also indicative of the issues he’s had in all formats of the game – getting Pakistan close to where they need to be, but departing to a silly dismissal before the game is safe, or target set. The sweep shot off Pietersen, and that too with a short fine leg in place, must have been premeditated and unbecoming of a batsman who plays spin well, cost Pakistan the game. Misbah himself admitted his wicket was the turning point in the game, but for too many matches has this been the case. He spoke of sticking to the basics in his post-match press conference, but premeditating shots as the opposition left-arm spinner bowls into the rough belies that thought process.

It’s immensely frustrating when a side is most probably 70 runs short of massive morale-boosting victory against the number one side in the world, almost replicating the way Imran’s Pakistan stood up to the West Indies in the 1980s, particularly after it loses 6 wickets for just 22 runs. Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Irfan and even Tanvir Ahmed deserved more. Instead, what they received was dropped catches, shoddy wicket-keeping and batting collapses from their team mates.

As for Sarfraz Ahmed’s dismissal and performance on this tour, it doesn’t even warrant a paragraph.