S Africa face must-win game against Pakistan
Friday, 26 October 2007
A pattern has begun to emerge in this engaging joust. Wickets look as if they'll leak runs except they don't. South Africa, setting or chasing targets, start well only to get bogged down in the face of Pakistan' twin spin stranglers and in that middle period, the game is effectively decided. Pakistan have reduced it to this simple equation and if it comes off tomorrow, then considerable hope will have been salvaged from a series, and era, that stuttered at the start, according to website cricinfo.
There are other themes floating around this pattern of course, which may or may not have a role to play; Shahid Afridi will have a role, in success or failure; South Africa's middle order, including Jacques Kallis, can't surely misfire in another match; Pakistan's fielding, on which so much hinges, has been clownish one day, supreme the next and who knows what tomorrow; a lonesome Johan Botha's failure to take a wicket or indeed exert any real pressure.
Mickey Arthur believes there is no great mystery why his side are trailing. Forget pitches, forget security distractions: "No excuses, Pakistan have played better than we have over the last two games."
Granted security concerns mightn't have been a distraction - though people have been quick to note that their losses have come after the Karachi bombings - but surely the pitches have played their part? Why shouldn't they, asked Arthur? Home advantage is there to be utilised.
Central to any counter-attack must be Jacques Kallis who has scored 400 runs less than he did in the Test series: 21 from three innings. Barring a battling 42 in the last match, Justin Kemp has also struggled.
Kemp, as the murmurs go, may not be as lucky in which case JP Duminy may sneak in. If it happens, then the two sides will be playing without their vice-captains - Kemp and Salman Butt, who has not featured in the series so far.
Mohammad Asif is still unlikely to play, though with Umar Gul and Iftikhar Anjum so confident, now is perhaps the only time Pakistan can afford to not worry so much about it.
But really, the ball is in South Africa's court. Andre Nel will play today (Friday) and Charl Langeveldt could make way. Do South Africa wish they had another spinning option, given the way the series has panned out? "Two spinners is debatable," insisted Arthur.
Pakistan: Yasir Hameed, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdur Rehman, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul
South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Albie Morkel, Johan Botha, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini.
There are other themes floating around this pattern of course, which may or may not have a role to play; Shahid Afridi will have a role, in success or failure; South Africa's middle order, including Jacques Kallis, can't surely misfire in another match; Pakistan's fielding, on which so much hinges, has been clownish one day, supreme the next and who knows what tomorrow; a lonesome Johan Botha's failure to take a wicket or indeed exert any real pressure.
Mickey Arthur believes there is no great mystery why his side are trailing. Forget pitches, forget security distractions: "No excuses, Pakistan have played better than we have over the last two games."
Granted security concerns mightn't have been a distraction - though people have been quick to note that their losses have come after the Karachi bombings - but surely the pitches have played their part? Why shouldn't they, asked Arthur? Home advantage is there to be utilised.
Central to any counter-attack must be Jacques Kallis who has scored 400 runs less than he did in the Test series: 21 from three innings. Barring a battling 42 in the last match, Justin Kemp has also struggled.
Kemp, as the murmurs go, may not be as lucky in which case JP Duminy may sneak in. If it happens, then the two sides will be playing without their vice-captains - Kemp and Salman Butt, who has not featured in the series so far.
Mohammad Asif is still unlikely to play, though with Umar Gul and Iftikhar Anjum so confident, now is perhaps the only time Pakistan can afford to not worry so much about it.
But really, the ball is in South Africa's court. Andre Nel will play today (Friday) and Charl Langeveldt could make way. Do South Africa wish they had another spinning option, given the way the series has panned out? "Two spinners is debatable," insisted Arthur.
Pakistan: Yasir Hameed, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdur Rehman, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul
South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Albie Morkel, Johan Botha, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini.