3.3.      Comprehensive South Africa gallop to whitewash

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.