PAKISTAN BEATING SOUTH AFRICA IN A LOW SCORING THRILLER

The 15^th 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 4^th 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 15^th 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 16^th 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 18^th 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 17^th 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.