SA tour of Pak(UAE)

UAE, though foreign for Pak, but it is no less then a home feeling. It was here they uprooted the World's best team, with a white wash. Now again they are on a fight with the recent best test team of the world, SA. PAK under captain Misbah and experienced Yunis, looks bit clear on their stance that they will give a strong fight.
We will get an interesting battle here.

South Africa:
1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 JP Duminy, 7 Faf du Plessis, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Vernon Philander, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel

Pakistan:
1 Shan Masood, 2 Khurram Manzoor, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Adnan Akmal (wk), 8 Abdur Rehman, 9 Saeed Ajmal, 10 Junaid Khan, 11 Mohammad Irfan

24 years Shan Masood is making his debut. Duminy returns to SA side.

Will be a battle between Pakistan spinners and South African batsmen. South Africa have asolid pace unit with Steyn, Philander, Morkel and Kallis. JP Duminy is expected to do a lot of bowling.
The likes of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers are fine players of spin, so it won't be easy for Ajmal and co to run through the line up as they did against England 2 winters ago. And the Pakistan batting is suspect against good bowling on a track with some life.
Hoping for some decent tracks, last time these 2 sides met in he UAE, the tracks were obnoxiously flat.

Alviro Petersen goes early. Debutant Shan Masood in early action, taking the catch on the 2nd attempt of the bowling of Mohammed Irfan. Petersen goes for 3. Hashim Amla joins his skipper.
South Africa 11-1.

Irfan's extra bounce is causing a bit of trouble to the South African batsmen. Smith just edging one over the slips for 4.

The South African skipper has been leading a rather charmed life at the crease so far. Another edge this time, again of Irfan, and this time the ball goes pass the stumps for 4 more.
South 19-1.

Ah!. We have a DRS dismissal, and it could be controversial!. Graeme Smith given not out by the onfield umpire on a Pakistan appeal for caught behind, Pakistan reviewed, remember there is no Hotspot available, there was a sound when the ball went pass the bat, but no real deviation but Smith is given out......
The South African captain never looked comfortable at the crease particularly against Irfan and had a few lucky moments against Irfan, but Irfan eventually gets his man, and South Africa in early trouble at 19-2.

Jacques Kallis joins Amla.

Not a good start by SA, I always wonder why we take such long breaks and go straight into a test series, half the batsmen are now going to try and play themselves in during a test series, makes little sense.

Pakistan's 34 year old test dubatant Zulfiqar Babar with the ball.
The left-arm spinner has significant first class experience, more than 300 wickets from 63 matches at an impressive average of 20.

subhranshu.kumar.5 wrote:South Africa:
1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 JP Duminy, 7 Faf du Plessis, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Vernon Philander, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel

Pakistan:
1 Shan Masood, 2 Khurram Manzoor, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Adnan Akmal (wk), 8 Abdur Rehman, 9 Saeed Ajmal, 10 Junaid Khan, 11 Mohammad Irfan

24 years Shan Masood is making his debut. Duminy returns to SA side.

]
Just to clarify, it is Zulfiqar Babar and not Abdur Rehman who is Pakistan's 2nd spin option.

msp83 wrote:Will be a battle between Pakistan spinners and South African batsmen. .

 
you are ignoring the Pak pacers...who are no less than South Africans.
 
Largely it's batting and more so internal discord that lets them down.....bowling wise for many years they have had the best bowling attacks in the world...inspite of one after the otehr their top pacers falling out on drugs , fixing and injuries

South Africa 53-3. Kallis the last man out, Junaid Khan with the wicket.
As KPF said above, the Pak bowling unit has mostly been class. Never can they be discounted and Junaid and Irfan have already proved it. What I was trying to suggest was that both seam attacks are class, while Pakistan are way ahead in the spin department. South African batting is much better than that of Pakistan.

seems like a controversial run.out of ABDV puts pak's nose up in front again

Pommy Mbengwa commentating tweets the folowing:

AB gone. Run out after an lbw shout holding the pose in wait for the umps decision. SA 104/4. Duminy in at 6

Think it was a moment of carelessness that got AB there. Can't blame anyone but himself for that if we go by the cricinfo description.
"Zulfiqar Babar to de Villiers, OUT, Appeal for a run-out! AB's back foot is on the line when Akmal whips off the bails but it doesn't see like a part of it was behind the line and he's been give out. AB looks to defend and he gets an inside edge to the pad and the ball rolls to Younis at first slip, Younis tosses it to Akmal and the alert wicketkeeper notices that AB never really bothered to drag his back foot back, he breaks the bails and after several replays the third umpire gives him out".

South Africa 131-4. JP Duminy trying to be positive against spin, spin has been his undoing so often in the past.

Bounce is a bigger problem for him in my view.

I think he has quite a few weaknesses to be honest.

SA 152-4 at tea. Hashim Amla on 71, JP Duminy on 36.

After being dropped on 56 by wicketkeeper Atnan Akmal of Saeed Ajmal, JP Duminy goes after adding just one more to his score, this time smartly caught by Asad Shafiq of Zulfiqar Babar who has taken his first test wicket.
South Africa 199-5. Amla on 95.

Hundred for Hashim!.

And Faf du Plessis goes for 1 to give Babar his 2nd wicket. South Africa in serious trouble now at 205-6. Will Peterson and Philander be up to it with the bat this time?

I think 250+ may prove to be a competitive score. There's plenty in this pitch for the spinners and a bit of reverse, whilst Pakistan's batting is notoriously fragile (and couldn't put away Zimbabwe recently).

Class knock from Amla again.

Complete brain freeze from AB for the run-out I can confirm via TV.

Nice knock for Duminy who looked fairly comfortable against the spin.

The enormity of lack of it of a first inning total is evident only when the second team bats once.

at this moment as suggested here.....250 appears a reasonable first inning score.......and if Amla + lower order can strentch it beyond...it's bonus.

But who knows if on of the pakistani bastmen plays a defining inning and gets a big hundred....they can have a good grip......less likely scenario this.

Applause to Amla  
always gripping to see top test sides play in bowling friendly conditions

Last over of the day in progress, and South Africa are 245-8. Amla is still there, and Dale Steyn is giving him company.
Of course there is a bit of life for the spinners, but then Robin Peterson isn't Saeed Ajmal and JP Duminy is only a parttimer, al be it a decent one at that. So as of now, its advantage Pakistan. But then if Steyn and Philander can produce a special performance, then 250 might prove to be a good total.

South Africa end day one of the first test at 245-8 as Dale Steyn safely negotiates Sulfiqar Babar's last over.
He has put on 23 with Amla for the 9th wicket so far, if Amla can push on this total to 275 280 in the company of Steyn and Morkel, South Africa would have a reasonably good score to work with.

this 34 year old spinner...have they not got anyone younger to bring into the side?

What a player this Hashim bloke is! Phenomenal! For me, the best player I've seen after the big 5 (SRT, Lara, Kallis, Dravid, Punter) and I won't be surprised if he ends up a better player than Punter or even Dravid and Kallis.

CF wrote:this 34 year old spinner...have they not got anyone younger to bring into the side?

If he's better than the youngsters available, why not? They're playing the No.1 Test side in the world and are just coming off the back of an embarassing defeat to Zimbabwe. They certainly can't look at this series as a development project to build for the future. Must pick your best team against SA.

And Babar had a good first day of test cricket, picking up 3 wickets.

Well done Hashim Amla.

A century in difficult conditions as all around him failed. Could be vital, could even be match-winning.

Pakistan bowled SA just a run behind 250. They are looking positive here. 14/0

Both the openers are looking positive, Pak 43/0 in 10 overs.

Pakistan 77 without loss. South Africa on the mat at the moment.

Cruel, I know, but I would like to see Philander's bowling average dented. Yes, he's done remarkably well so far, but he's been missing injured when they've played on flat pitches (didn't Australia rack up some vast scores when Vernon was out injured?) and has played on some bowler-friendly tracks.
But he's surely not a 17-average bowler. That's pure 19th century stuff.

Pakistan go to lunch on day to at 77 without loss. Debutant Shan Masood is batting on 36, and Khurram Manzoor on 41.
Pakistan completely dominated that session, they packed off the 2 remaining South African wickets for the addition of just 4 runs, and went at 3.5 in the rest of the session without losing a wicket.

Dale Steyn has figures of 5-0-31-0 at lunch. Philander, Kallis and Morkel managed to control the runs, but the spinners Peterson and Duminy went for 16 in their 3 overs combined.

South Africa on the back-foot.

Mind you, much like a controlled demolition for a disused block of flats, this Pakistan batting line-up is liable to collapse at any moment.

Pakistan 112 without loss. Shan Masood on debut is batting on 60, and Khurram Manzoor too has brought up his 50.

It seems we are in deep doodoo here.  

South Africa at last separate Masood and Manzoor. JP Duminy's parttime spin does for Masood, no debut ton for Masood, he's out LBW for 75. Azhar Ali joins Manzoor.
Pakistan 148-1.

It was an impressive effort from Masood on debut. He played Steyn and Philander well with the new ball and played the spinners with confidence, and he was always alert to the possibility of a quick single and generally ran well between the wickets. Pakistan should give him a decent run in the side.

Pakistan 155-1 at tea. South Africa managed to pick up a wicket and control the flow of runs a bit better, but Pakistan are holding all the key cards at the moment. They'd hope to overtake the South African total by the end of the day without losing too many wickets, and then they have the entire 3rd day to bat to try and establish a decisive lead.

I would say SA are still favorites......I am aligned with my friend Duty.....pakistan will come down crashing any time and there is an entrire set of 2n innings also and Pak bat 4th

Robin Pietersen is NOT a test bowler. What the hell is he doing there?

Manzoor has his first Test century, and a very brisk one at that.

Pakistan 203/3. One more big partnership and the Saffers could have a very tough task on their hands.

After taking 2 quick wickets after tea, one through a fine catch from de Villiers of Philander to get Azhar Ali, and the other through an absolute ripper of a delivery from Morne Morkel that got Younis Khan, Pakistan are resting the control back through a solid partnership between Khurram Manzoor and skipper Misbah. From 178-3, they have taken the side to 235-3. The South African total is just 14 runs away, and for South Africa, the nw ball is just 4 overs away.

There are another 7 overs remaining in the day's play, SA can have 4 of those with the new ball if they want.

Just shows you what happens when you haven't spent time in the middle.

Apart from Amla our batting is woefull. When you don't have a quality spinner, don't take someone who thinks he can spin a ball.

Very disappointing from the Proteas.

Pakistan take first innings lead. 250-3.