Firstly, congratulations to Pakistan for winning an ODI series in South Africa for the first time - you deserve it, especially after producing the more consistent cricket during the first and second ODI's at Newlands and St George's Park respectively.
The South Africans gave it their best shot today in Port Elizabeth, chasing a formidable total in a rain-reduced match, but unfortunately they came up short by 1 run. Yes, only one run made the difference between losing an ODI series and tying it. However, the Proteas, led by AB de Villiers had numerous chances to wrap up today's game and failed in the end.
From a bowling perspective, only Dale Steyn with 6 wickets for 39 runs, in 9 overs made the Pakistan batsmen work hard for their runs. Imran Tahir bowled well too, especially on a pitch that did not help the spinners much. The rest of the bowlers could not stick to a consistent length and the Pakistan batsmen made them pay.
The South African innings started off very slowly, with the Pakistan opening bowlers bowling a very disciplined line and length. Smith was out early for only 1, which is just perhaps an indication that his days as an ODI batsmen is over. Amla, as usual, steadied the ship and young Quinton de Kock made a very good, entertaining contribution of 47 runs off 52 balls.
South Africa was chasing hard all game long until around the 38th over, when they required only about a run a ball to win, with plenty of wickets in the bag. Skipper De Villiers was firing away and Amla was set for another ODI century. In my view the Proteas threw it away with AB, Amla, and Duminy losing their wickets through unnecessary attacking shots, which was not needed at that stage.
Especially Amla, although scoring 98, should have seen the innings through to the end and made sure South Africa won this one. Again, cricket remains a very unpredictable game and that is why The Sports-Man loves it ...!
The South Africans gave it their best shot today in Port Elizabeth, chasing a formidable total in a rain-reduced match, but unfortunately they came up short by 1 run. Yes, only one run made the difference between losing an ODI series and tying it. However, the Proteas, led by AB de Villiers had numerous chances to wrap up today's game and failed in the end.
From a bowling perspective, only Dale Steyn with 6 wickets for 39 runs, in 9 overs made the Pakistan batsmen work hard for their runs. Imran Tahir bowled well too, especially on a pitch that did not help the spinners much. The rest of the bowlers could not stick to a consistent length and the Pakistan batsmen made them pay.
The South African innings started off very slowly, with the Pakistan opening bowlers bowling a very disciplined line and length. Smith was out early for only 1, which is just perhaps an indication that his days as an ODI batsmen is over. Amla, as usual, steadied the ship and young Quinton de Kock made a very good, entertaining contribution of 47 runs off 52 balls.
South Africa was chasing hard all game long until around the 38th over, when they required only about a run a ball to win, with plenty of wickets in the bag. Skipper De Villiers was firing away and Amla was set for another ODI century. In my view the Proteas threw it away with AB, Amla, and Duminy losing their wickets through unnecessary attacking shots, which was not needed at that stage.
Especially Amla, although scoring 98, should have seen the innings through to the end and made sure South Africa won this one. Again, cricket remains a very unpredictable game and that is why The Sports-Man loves it ...!
| Batsman | Status | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hashim Amla | c Mohammad Hafeez b Saeed Ajmal | 98 | 131 | 7 | 0 | 74.81 |
| Graeme Smith | c Umar Akmal b Junaid Khan | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14.29 |
| Quinton de Kock (W) | c Misbah-ul-Haq b Shahid Afridi | 47 | 52 | 3 | 1 | 90.38 |
| Jacques Kallis | c Saeed Ajmal b Shahid Afridi | 6 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| AB de Villiers (C) | c Shahid Afridi b Junaid Khan | 74 | 45 | 8 | 2 | 164.44 |
| JP Duminy | c Anwar Ali b Junaid Khan | 15 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 83.33 |
| David Miller | not out | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Ryan McLaren | not out | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dale Steyn | ||||||
| Lonwabo Tsotsobe | ||||||
| Imran Tahir |
| Extras: 18 (b - 1, w - 5, no - 12, lb - 0, penalty - 0) | |
| Fall of Wickets | 1/9 (Graeme Smith 4.3ov.) 2/96 (Quinton de Kock 21.4ov.) 3/117 (Jacques Kallis 25.4ov.) 4/227 (AB de Villiers 38.4ov.) 5/254 (Hashim Amla 44ov.) 6/255 (JP Duminy 44.2ov.) |
| Bowlers | O | M | R | WKT | NO | WD | ECON |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junaid Khan | 9 | 0 | 42 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4.67 |
| Anwar Ali | 7 | 1 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.57 |
| Saeed Ajmal | 8 | 0 | 46 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5.75 |
| Mohammad Hafeez | 8 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.5 |
| Bilawal Bhatti | 4 | 0 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9.75 |
| Shahid Afridi | 9 | 0 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4.22 |
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