The 15th match of the ICC World Twenty20
saw Pakistan face South Africa with both sides coming into the match in
good form having won both of their group fixtures. Each side brought an
extra spinner into their line up with South Africa bringing in Robin
Peterson and Pakistan including the young Raza Hasan in place of Sohail
Tanvir.
Having won the toss and elected to bat South Africa
made a poor start to their innings with three wickets falling in the
first 6.1 overs to leave the Proteas struggling at 28 for 3. The
Pakistan captain had quickly realised that his spinners would be his
most dangerous options on a dry and slow track and bowled only the one
over of pace in the powerplay.
With three wickets down South Africa then made one of
the strangest decisions of the day and sent Behardien in ahead of AB de
Villiers. There may have been a thought that it was better to save de
Villiers for the end of the innings and also give Behardien an
opportunity to have a long innings but considering the importance of the
game and treacherous situation South Africa were in it was a
questionable call.
Behardien and Duminy put on 38 runs for the 4th
wicket which steadied the innings but those runs took 6.2 overs to come
– exactly 6 runs per over. Given the fact that they were already a long
way behind the scoring rate they could ill afford this ponderous
partnership which made it increasingly unlikely that South Africa could
reach a par score of around 145.
The fall of Behardien finally brought de Villiers to
the crease but with fewer than eight overs left and only 66 runs on the
board South Africa were a long way short of posting a competitive score.
The scoring rate increased noticeably when de
Villiers joined Duminy as the pair put on 44 runs in just 4.5 overs with
de Villiers leading the way with 25 from just 18 balls. This
partnership lifted South Africa and set them on their way to a
defensible score but it still felt like it was too late to allow them to
post a total that was any more than that.
De Villiers and Duminy both fell in the final overs
as they were forced to throw the bat at everything. Albie Morkel and
Peterson, the men who followed them, did their best to maintain the
scoring rate but with so few runs on the board and the Pakistan bowlers
dominating proceedings they were only able to take South Africa to 133
in their 20 overs.
Hafeez, the Pakistan captain, marshalled his
resources excellently and elected to utilise his powerful spin bowling
line up with the slow bowlers bowling 15 of the 20 overs in the innings.
Hafeez himself was also the pick of the spinners and he bowled with
great control to record figures of 4-0-23-2 to lead his side to a
dominant position at the halfway stage.
With only 134 to chase the Pakistan opening batsmen
were intent on ending the game in short order. They took 20 runs from
the first two overs of their innings with both Hafeez and Nazir looking
in fine form.
This start was soon a distant memory however as the
Pakistan batting line up imploded. First Nazir gloved a catch to de
Villiers off the final ball of the third over then both Hafeez and
Jamshed were stumped in the same over off the bowling of Peterson with
both men no where near good spinning deliveries. When Kamran Akmal was
bowled by Botha in the seventh over, a wicket maiden, Pakistan had
slumped to 37 for 4.
A 26 run stand between Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal
steadied the Pakistan innings but at that stage of the game South Africa
were rampant with their fielding looking sharp and their bowlers
demonstrating excellent control as they reduced the flow of runs to just
a trickle.
The pressure the bowlers built led to a further burst
of wickets with Malik, Afridi and Arafat all falling in quick
succession. Shahid Afridi's dismissal was particularly reckless with the
mercurial Pakistani charging down the pitch off the first ball he faced
and lofting it straight to long off. These wickets left Pakistan at 76
for 7 at the end of the 15th over and with 58 needed from the final five overs the match seemed as good as won by South Africa.
It seems that the South African side, their bowlers –
with the exception of Steyn – in particular, felt the game was won too
and proceeded to bowl a succession of wayward overs to allow Pakistan
back into the contest. It started with consecutive 6's from Umar Gul in
the 16th over bowled by Kallis and continued as the Pakistani bowler reminded the watching world that he is a tremendous ball striker.
By the end of the 18th over Gul, in
partnership with Umar Akmal, had reduced the deficit to just 15 and put
Pakistan firmly in control of the match. He had seemed to be able to hit
boundaries at will with the 17th over bowled by Albie Morkel going for an eye watering 20 runs.
Steyn was the man to bowl the penultimate over. He
bowled with speed and accuracy; which was all the more impressive in
light of the blow he took off a firmly struck Umar Akmal drive from the
first ball of the over. He only conceded 6 runs in the over an in
addition picked up the potentially crucial wicket of Gul who finished
with a career best 32 from 17 deliveries.
Steyn's excellent over left Morne Morkel defending 9
runs with a genuine tail ender in the middle too. When Morkel beat the
bat of Umar Akmal with the first ball of the over and the equation
became 9 runs from 5 balls the match was in the balance. However the
South African man tipped his hand by setting a strong off side field
which meant he could only bowl wide yorker deliveries. This combined
with a poor second ball, a full toss, allowed Umar Akmal to take 6 from
the delivery and tip the balance back to Pakistan. When Saeed Ajmal
edged the winning runs two balls later Pakistan had sealed an unlikely
victory.
