Ibrahim Moiz

18/5/2013

The bowlers once again excelled to propel Pakistan to a 96-run rout in their first match at Scotland despite a strictly mediocre show with the bat. Though Majid Haq had helped shackle Pakistan to an eminently gettable 231 for 7 on a flat track—a score boosted, moreover, by captain Misbah-ul-Haq’s splendid 83 off 80 balls—the home side then stuttered with regular wickets as Junaid Khan and Saeed Ajmal led Pakistan’s clinical attack.

Scotland’s batsmen did not help their cause with a decidedly unimaginative approach that ranged between mostly missed swipes and unconvincing defence, leading to an innings that went nowhere. As many as seven Scots reached double figures, but only opener Kyle Coetzer (32) managed to exceed 20 as Junaid and Ajmal yet again proved their value in an unexpectedly one-sided affair.

Scotland’s first casualty, the debutant allrounder Neil Carter—who opened with both bat and ball—may have been pardoned considering his inexperience for a rather panicky sixth-ball swipe that saw Junaid dislodge his bails (0 for 1). Junaid and his gangling new-ball partner Mohammad Irfan jagged the ball about appreciably, but Coetzer and Josh Davey showed that conditions were very manageable with a 52-run partnership that was, remarkably, the highest of the match.

With Coetzer deftly discreet and Davey walking into some bold lofts over the off-side, the pair proceeded at a decent clip before another unwise swing, having just edged the previous ball wide of the keeper, saw Davey nick to Kamran Akmal and give the lanky Pakistan debutant Ehsan Adil a maiden wicket. And the clinical parsimony of the efficient Mohammad Hafeez—whose eight miserly overs yielded only 12 runs—literally strangled Coetzer, who nicked the allrounder down leg.

Irfan then returned and effected a quick strike, leaving the innings in straits that never improved. Moneeb Iqbal—who scratched out a painful 10 off 42 balls—and Preston Mommsen tried to steady the ship, but never succeeded; Iqbal was run out by Ajmal, who then had a frustrated Mommsen stranded as he missed a huge charging heave. The required rate climbing, Richie Berrington holed out, sweeping to that fine square-leg fielder, before Junaid and Ajmal, with smart straight but sharp spells, made short work of the tail, Rob Taylor last to go missing a wild heave across the finger-spinner.

Misbah’s superbly assembled innings was the main difference between the sides on a day where most batsmen failed to impress. Taking first use of a flat pitch, Pakistan’s left-handed openers made an encouraging start, sharing 50 before Nasir Jamshed lobbed a mistimed drive off the economical Taylor straight to Mommsen at cover. Imran Farhat (46) impressed against the new ball with some lovely strokes through a wide off-side arc ranging from mid-off to backward point, but he was stifled by off-spin—as were most of Pakistan’s middle-order.

In the space of ten overs Pakistan stumbled from a promising 80 for 1 to 115 for 5; the batsmen mainly proved incapable of safely consolidating and fell, like their opponents would, to unnecessary risky shots; Farhat, Hafeez and Shafiq was each bowled trying to late-cut the spinners, while left-hander Umer Amin, returning after three years, holed out. Haq, pick of the Scottish attacks, shackled Pakistan’s middle order with precise, thrifty off-spin. And Carter soon had his maiden scalp when Akmal missed a straight ball, leaving Pakistan panting at 144 for 6.

Throughout this morass, the sensible Misbah-ul-Haq kept his cool, warming up with a brace of classy off-drives and ticking the strike around intelligently in a manner that none of his teammates really managed. Misbah received enthusiastic support from Ajmal, whose valuable run-a-ball 28 included its fair share of edges, a couple of lusty pulls, and successfully frustrated the home bowlers. The pair shared 51 and, with the final overs in sight, Misbah opened his shoulders, carting three huge sixes, two of which cleared the ground entirely, over midwicket. With a passable score achieved, Pakistan’s bowlers took over.

Pakistan level series with tight win

21/3/2013

Ibrahim Moiz

The series will go to a decider after Pakistan clinched a tense three-wicket victory at Durban in a twisting and turning game where the allround efforts of their frontline bowlers and batsmen eventually proved important. When the deadly left-arm pair of Mohammad Irfan and Junaid Khan wrecked the top order and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal mangled the middle, it required another captain’s knock from AB de Villiers, coupled with a sprightly fifty from returning young left-hander David Miller, to steer South Africa to a respectable 234. Despite a wobble at either end of their chase, Pakistan rode an important 153-run partnership between their own captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, and returning left-hander, Imran Farhat, to level the series,

Misbah’s authorative 80, with seven fours and two sixes off 93 balls, proved especially critical in wresting the momentum from South Africa, and though Farhat’s rustiness was obvious throughout a patchy but gutsy 144-ball 93 (eight fours and a six), he did well to hang at the crease and frustrate the home bowlers. The significance of their stand was indicated by Pakistan’s perilous slips at either end of the chase, first slipping to 33 for 3 and then losing wickets in a clutch near the close of the innings.

Farhat’s patchiness and nerves after a nine-month absence from the team was understandable, and though he rarely convinced—particularly against a fuming Dale Steyn, who harassed, harangued, tested and threatened but never managed to break through until the very end of the innings—it was a hard-fought, stubborn innings with a tenacity that should please Pakistan. And Misbah’s mixture of calm solidness and powerful strokeplay proved decisive in a lineup otherwise wracked with indecision.

This indecision was apparent in an indignant Mohammad Hafeez’s first-ball duck, adjudged to be obstructing the field under the new rules when his hurry to the non-striker’s end took a turn that impeded de Villiers’ throw, as well as in the subsequent double-strike; Kamran Akmal flashed Lonwabo Tsotsobe to point, where Miller shot low to take a stunning catch, and Younus Khan, having just dabbed Rory Kleinveldt off a leaping Graeme Smith’s fingertips at slip, then diced with danger again and dabbed the ball into his stumps (33 for 3).

Farhat was not exempt from the top order’s fretfulness, but he showed more discipline and enjoyed more fortune than most. Against a fiery Steyn he was nearly strokeless, dropping hustling balls off middle and leg into the pitch and missing or merely mishitting anything wide: South Africa also employed the bouncer liberally, and were rarely punished by either batsman or umpire. A full thirteen overs went by without a boundary, but Misbah quietly settled in, benefiting from the occasional edge that flew wide of danger, while Farhat continued to push and prod nervously without quite offering his wicket, though he did under-edge Robin Peterson to de Villiers, who committed a rare blunder.

The turning point came when de Villiers brought on the part-time leg-spinner Coin Ingram after the halfway stage; Pakistan had gone at three-and-a-half per over and were facing a required rate of six. Misbah immediately pounced, opening his shoulders to clout the part-timer over cow corner for 6,4,6, raising a 56-ball fifty, and seize the momentum. Suddenly the runs began to come in a steady trickle, singles taken with more urgency. As the Powerplay arrived, Farhat reached a 97-ball fifty with a sudden spurt of boundaries, sweeping, flicking and outright slogging with sudden urgency, while a cool and composed Misbah stood tall to cream the seamers through extra cover and midwicket, right along the ground.

Only a snarling, wild-eyed Steyn, who was both the thriftiest and most threatening of the bowlers, seemed to remain in Pakistan’s way, but the allrounder Peterson sneaked in through the side door to jolt the chase with a double-strike: Misbah holed out to a running Farhaan Behardien and Shahid Afridi, having creamed his first ball to the extra-cover rope, hacked an edge off the next one into a gleeful de Villiers’ gloves. Farhat now slogged in wild earnest; missing plenty of slashes, he did manage to swat cross-batted heaves over mid-off and, rubbing the salt into Steyn’s ire, swung him high into the long-off stand.

Even so, South Africa were not quite done, and another mighty Farhat slash off Steyn this time ballooned over cover-point, where Behardien took a brilliant running catch over his shoulder. Ingram then swooped to run out Wahab Riaz and it was left to the experienced Shoaib Malik, with a run-a-ball 19, to cut Pakistan past the winning line, ending an entertaining tussle that had begun in the morning with a terrific spell from the left-arm pacers.

South Africa had opted to bat first on a fairly placid pitch, but they were jolted rudely when the gigantic pacer Irfan, lumbering in to propel the ball down from a steeple height and right up to the batsmen, struck a double-whammy off the game’s first two balls; first Hashim Amla’s lazy waft nicked an edge that was brilliantly caught by a leaping Kamran Akmal, and then Ingram, yorked like a bolt from the blue, had to return to the dressing-room with the slumber barely out of South Africa’s eyes and Irfan (3 for 46) on a hat-trick.

The hat-trick ball turned out to be an understandably nervy, friendly full-toss, but the spry Junaid (3 for 45) now added his own double-strike: Smith, moving too far across his wicket, lost his leg-stump to a crunching yorker before Behardien’s inner edge was superbly caught by a swooping Kamran (38 for 4). It meant that the left-hander Miller came to the wicket under heavy pressure but with more time than he normally has, and a captain in obviously rich vein of form at the other end made his task easier.

De Villiers (75, five fours) had hinted at that bright form with a brace of crisp off-drives off either foot to get underway, but the judiciousness required in the crisis took precedence and he settled into a more watchful, wary role, diligently nudging and working into gaps and playing the first hour on merit, before trying out more of his tricks against the spin. Miller was fortunate himself, surviving several thick edges and a lazy spoon off Hafeez that was shelled in a glaring blunder by an even lazier Farhat at midwicket, he began to show an exquisite measure of skill and mischief against the spin and Afridi in particular, reverse-sweeping, back-punching and off-driving the rusty leg-spinner to the boundaries as well as scurrying between the wickets to raise a sprightly 63-ball fifty (seven fours).

The left-hander looked especially dangerous as the Powerplay approached, but he fell just on its brink, missing a sweep off the dangerous Saeed Ajmal (3 for 42), whose triple-strike in that Powerplay scuttled South Africa’s recovery quite badly; de Villiers nicked an under-edge and Ryan McLaren, trying to break the shackles, launched him high over long-off where the lanky seven-footer Irfan, shambling towards the boundary, suddenly plucked out an amazing catch with one huge hand from over his shoulder: only a man of his height could have taken it, and make it look deceptively simple.

South Africa’s late proceedings were therefore patchy; Kleinveldt, backing away for a swing too many to leg, and Steyn both lost their wickets to superb round-the-stumps yorkers from Irfan and Junaid. Only a late burst from Peterson, who had watched much of the disarray from the other end before suddenly innovating two of three fours to come off the final over and dent Junaid’s figures. Nonetheless South Africa’s total was no more than a fighting one, and though fight they did, Misbah and Farhat managed to keep Pakistan in the series.

Ibrahim Moiz

10/3/2013

South Africa crushed Pakistan by a landslide in the first one-day match at Bloemfontein, with Colin Ingram and Rory Kleinveldt leading the way with bat and ball respectively as the visitors were outclassed. Ingram’s crisp hundred powered South Africa to a daunting 315 before Kleinveldt and Ryan McLaren sank Pakistan’s chase to share seven wickets and complete a 125-run rout.

Pakistan’s decision to field on a flat track may have puzzled, but South Africa survived and even thrived in what could have been a decidedly nervous first hour before climbing into the visitors’ spinners and seamers alike. Ingram’s positive, attacking but mature century was the anchor of the innings; the openers Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla set up a useful if not always convincing platform, captain AB de Villiers chipped in with a cheeky half-century and Farhaan Behardien sparkled in a late flourish that propelled the total beyond 300. Pakistan’s own chase was particularly uncoordinated, with Kleinveldt and McLaren exhibiting lively spells of seam and bounce.

None of Pakistan’s batsmen managed more than a handy start hither and yon; Nasir Jamshed, with a crisp boundary-laden cameo, had dominated an opening stand of 42 that came at a run a ball when he sparred at a Kleinveldt ball angled across his bows. With Jamshed went Pakistan’s momentum, his opening partner Mohammad Hafeez run out backing up as Younus Khan’s drive only just brushed Kleinveldt’s fingers into the non-striker’s stumps; it took a number of replays to affirm what was not a conclusive decision by any stretch.

Younus’ sluggish 30 set the run-rate sinking from six to four as the veteran batsman took time to find his feet; at the other end, Kleinveldt and McLaren shackled the innings with tight, brisk and often surprisingly quick seamers. Asad Shafiq hooked a springy McLaren bouncer to long leg (65 for 3) and captain Misbah-ul-Haq began with characteristic caution before unleashing against Robin Peterson’s a barrage of muscular heaves to cow corner.

Younus perished to an ambitious flail at the debutant, Kyle Abbott, and though Misbah launched left-arm swinger Lonwabo Tsotsobe into the long-on stand he didn’t last much longer, gloving a hook off another sharp McLaren bouncer, which was then repeated to dismiss Kamran Akmal before McLaren swooped at backward point to remove Shoaib Malik, outfoxed by Tsotsobe’s slower ball.

The imposing Kleinveldt rumbled back to rip through the tail, Saeed Ajmal puzzlingly failing to review a thick-edged leg-before shout, and though allrounder Shahid Afridi celebrated his 350^th game by caning a thunderous 34 in 16 balls, with one six lofted over extra cover and another hammered into the car park beyond long-on, he was last out to give Kleinveldt a four-for as Behardien swooped low at deep midwicket to round off a fine victory.

South Africa’s innings had been as fluent as Pakistan’s was disorderly; the only semblance of unease came against a threatening but short-lived new-ball spell and even so, the openers racked up 72. Hashim Amla’s run-a-ball 43 was not his most attractive innings—surviving several nicks, including an inside edge off a sharp Umar Gul in-ducker that narrowly evaded the stumps—but it was nonetheless a run-a-ball 43 and contained some strokes of class. Smith, too, was often squared up by the moving ball and yet managed to thrust some muscular strokes, including a high-elbowed straight drive cleaved past Junaid Khan.

The spinners—Pakistan going in with as many as four against just the two seamers—removed the openers, Smith edging Ajmal before Amla heaved Hafeez to deep square leg (83 for 2), but nonetheless South Africa batted with consummate ease against them. It helped that de Villiers, astutely chipping the slow bowlers into gaps and sprinting between the wickets, was at hand, but the relatively inexperienced left-hander Ingram showed both quick decision and excellent execution against the spinners; when the ball was flighted he swept well, and when it dropped short—as it did far too often—he slid off efficient cuts using the pace.

Such was the expert placement and urgent running that de Villiers and Ingram at one stage were toying with Pakistan’s scrambling field, particularly the hefty but manful Jamshed. De Villiers’ ingenuity again came to the fore, swatting half-trackers from anywhere between extra cover—a soaring back-foot punch off Afridi—to square leg, where the off-spinners were hit. Ajmal’s first four overs, unusually, went for 33 runs, though he did improve on that when he had de Villiers cutting to Younus at cover. Despite a generally difficult effort against Ajmal in particular, Faf du Plessis then added 62 in ten overs with Ingram, the highlight of which was an Afridi over that sped for five fours, three in a row to highlight du Plessis’ otherwise struggling knock as the leg-spinner floated either too wide or dropped too wide.

The innings really went into overdrive, though, upon du Plessis’ dismissal, as Ingram and Behardien crashed 50 in just 23 balls. Behardien blazed inside-out through cover and then walloped Junaid for consecutive sixes over long-on, while Ingram unveiled a superb attack on Gul, whose last three overs bled 36; he opened the face to glide him through third man, moved outside leg to carve him through extra cover and pounded him straight overhead. The late assault, and the wonderful Ingram hundred that came with it, epitomized the extent to which Pakistan have been battered this tour.

Ibrahim Moiz

It took South Africa only three days at Centurion to batter Pakistan by an innings and complete a crushing 3-0 whitewash, as Dale Steyn seized 4 for 80 to mop off the ragged visitors. Cursory resistance at either end of Pakistan’s innings still resulted in a modest 235 as South Africa drilled home their superiority over a harrowed touring side.

It was Graeme Smith’s fiftieth win at the helm, already a record, a decade after his first Test as captain at the tender age of 23. The pace attack that South Africa have nurtured, and the outstanding results of the past five years in particular, left no doubt as to the merits of that decision. Pakistan were the latest victims to be swept away in a rampant season for the Springboks.

It didn’t take Steyn too long to extricate Younus Khan, done in by a gem of an away-swinger that flew into Smith’s bucket hands in the slips, and though there was some resistance through the morning from Azhar Ali and Imran Farhat, a disastrous run-out sent Pakistan’s middle order in freefall. From 114 for 6 it only took some entertaining cameos from Pakistan’s hitherto underperforming lower order to extend the game, but it was far too late to save the visitors.

While Azhar dug in for yet another staid but unfulfilled innings, the flamboyant southpaw Farhat (43) stroked some striking blows through the off-side; along with a couple of elegant off-drives he climbed into anything short and wide, smacking it square, and was by some distance the most positive of the specialist batsmen. The pair made it to lunch, but a needless run-out after the break—Azhar, contemplating a second, was floored by a flat brutal throw from fine leg by that man Steyn—sent off another collapse.

Kyle Abbott removed Farhat, top-edging a ball too close to cut, and Misbah-ul-Haq’s innings meandered nowhere till the other young pacer, hefty Rory Kleinveldt, squared up him with a lively away-swinger. Asad Shafiq’s was a tame dismissal, playing early off a Kleinveldt ball that stopped and lobbed to cover, leaving the lower order to finally reveal their latent talents.

The typically feisty Saeed Ajmal flung himself into pirouetting swipes when the ball was there to hit, including a billowing six over long-on, while Sarfraz Ahmed, the diminutive keeper with the curious crouch, sped to 40 off just 45 balls, with a number of astutely placed stabs through cover-point off the seamers. A couple of successful reviews may have briefly frustrated the seamers, but Steyn eventually snapped the 69-run rollick, Ajmal playing around a full in-dipper before Sarfraz was emboldened into an uppercut that picked out Dean Elgar on the boundary.

There was still some wag from the gangling tail—Ehsan Adil leant into a couple of neat cover drives while Rahat Ali, repeatedly clearing his foot to slog Steyn across the line, indulged in a boundary-flooded 33-run last-wicket stand with Mohammad Irfan—but it didn’t last long, and Robin Peterson mopped off the innings to give South Africa yet another conclusive victory.

Ibrahim Moiz

22/2/2013

South Africa coasted to the front seat on the opening day at Centurion against a decidedly green Pakistan attack, with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers yet again proving their class and fluency as the home side gallivanted merrily to 334 for 6 at four an over, feasting on a very raw pace attack that mixed bouts of incision with bouts of understandable waywardness.

Though Pakistan took wickets at a relatively regular rate, such was the ease with which Amla, whose 92 came off just 128 balls, and de Villiers, a couple short of a hundred by stumps, batted that any pressure was absorbed as in a sponge. The visitors` attack lacked in experience—with each of the trifecta in his maiden series, including lanky nineteen-year-old debutant Ehsan Adil, who limped off at the end of the day with a niggle—what they made up in height—Mohammad Irfan`s seven-foot frame is easily recognizable, but both Adil and left-arm swinger Rahat Ali are also over six feet. At any rate, Amla had no trouble going on the front foot, a delectable array of soothing drives punishing anything marginally overpitched and off line. And de Villiers` exceptional talent both in convention and innovation again shone through, the backward point and third man region especially coming under fire as he managed to maneouvre the bowlers almost toyingly.

All the same, Pakistan`s green seam attack punched above its weight, if not height, till the evening session, when the allrounder-stacked tail cracked like a whip alongside de Villiers, who added 52 with Robin Peterson and a further, unbeaten 86 with Vernon Philander (45 not out).

Having elected to bat, South Africa set a lively pace from the get-go despite losing both openers early (38 for 2). Both Rahat, who swung a rare good-length ball into Alviro Petersen`s pad, and Adil, whose fifth ball was poked by Graeme Smith into the slips—where Younus Khan swooped like a panther to intercept a flying nick—grabbed their maiden wickets, but Amla had already flown off the tarpar.

A high number of no-balls didn`t help Pakistan, and nor did Rahat`s generous supply of leg-side drifters to get Amla`s innings away with a number of efficient on-side flicks, followed by a number of relaxing wide half-volleys that were coaxed square by Amla with delicious timing. Faf du Plessis began with equal confidence, especially when cracking Adil for three fours in an over—a cover drive, a straight drive, and a square cut—as South Africa sped to a rate that they would maintain through the day.

Saeed Ajmal did not really trouble the batsmen either, though he beat them once or twice in flight as they eagerly skipped down to drive him through and against the turn; Amla, especially, leapt down time and again to flick and loft him through and over mid-on and midwicket. A brief spell of restriction brought about du Plessis` dismissal, as an Adil outswinger sprang away into Sarfraz Ahmed`s gloves (107 for 3), but Amla subsequently stroked Adil out of the attack with a volley of superb drives all the way from long-on to extra cover.

By his own standards de Villiers took some time to get underway, but it was not an approach shy of caution; indeed, once settled de Villiers frustrated the towering left-armer Irfan with a number of ingenious, open-faced glides through to third man from bounding, back-of-length balls. The partnership had danced to 79 at such a canter that it was a surprise when Rahat struck a double blow before tea, Amla throwing his hands to nick behind and Dean Elgar trapped on the back pad by one that nipped in (196 for 5).

But South Africa, led by de Villiers, wrenched the momentum in the final session. Peterson, brimming with confidence, set the tone with 28 off just 40 balls, a cameo laced with some superb and beautifully late back-cuts that sent the opposing allrounder, Mohammad Hafeez, out of the attack. De Villiers had briefly resorted to convention, only endeavouring to drive those overpitched balls that were begging to be stroked straight or flicking leg-side drifters, and was a rare second fiddle in the stand, which ended abruptly when the gigantic Irfan swooped at mid-on to nail Peterson with a direct hit (248 for 6).

But by stumps de Villiers was back to his cheeky best, reverse-lapping Ajmal gleefully to his favoured third man area, and as late as the final over flashing a daring uppercut off Rahat over the same area. And the bold Philander relished any short-pitched lengths from the expensive Rahat, standing tall to unfurl some booming pulls as well as a bludgeoned straight drive off Adil that rocketed to the rope; only one review from the part-time wrist-spinner Azhar Ali gave the allrounder a momentary scare. But with the inexperienced pacers flagging and the part-timers ripe for the milking, South Africa whisked away the advantage.