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Blog Entry -
Blog
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Friday, 26 October 2007 18:59 |
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Contributed by HW SquadStats
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(836 views) |
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By identifying some of their teething problems and working a clever little way around them, South Africa ensured the series will go into the fifth game with all to fight for.
Three major problem areas had kept South Africa on the backfoot so far. The first was the consistent performance of Mohammad Yousuf, the second was the Pakistani bowling in the middle overs- poached and held back by Afridi and Rahman, and the third was the lack of firepower in their own batting, again, in the middle order. These they overcame with a combination of solid cricket and admirable ingenunity.
Yousuf was dismissed early as Pakistan batted first, and as has been the pattern, the rest of the batting order fell around him.Younis Khan (82), with help from Shoaib Malik (45) and Rehman (31) ensured that they would have something to bowl at (230 for 9 in 50 overs).
The best way to counter the remaining two problems arising in the middle overs seemed to be to settle the game before they entered the stage. A good start was something the South Africans were getting regularly, and this they managed to turn into a great start. Pollock had been looking good in the series so far, and an average (26) just 5 runs lower than the team's overall batting average (31) is one that indicates much better batting calibre than the number 8 position denotes. The plan then was to delay the entry of the dodgy middle order by promoting Pollock up to number 3, and it worked.
Smith (81 off 103) and Pollock (90 off 84) ensured that they took enough off Asif (0 for 64 off 8) and Gul (0 for 52 off 5) to allow them to milk the danger men Afridi, Rehman and Iftikhar Anjum for 4 and a half an over, and stroll to a comfortable win with 12.2 overs and 7 wickets to go (233 for 3 off 37.4 overs).
Pakistan will take heart from the fact that Anjum, Afridi and Rehman continued to bowl well, and that Younis Khan has also found the right touch on his willow. While Pollock's heroics with the bat adds a useful new weapon to the African arsenal, perhaps Smith might have preferred that it was his struggling middle-order batsmen who had been amongst the runs. But he won't be complaining, after all, what better time for the middle order to correct their shortcomings than in the series decider?
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