1.4.      Eleven for Steyn and de Villiers in crushing win

Ibrahim Moiz

4-2-2013

South Africa wrapped up a crushing 211-run rout on the fourth morning of the Johannesburg Test as fast bowler Dale Steyn and wicketkeeper AB de Villiers rattled up a number of impressive records. The electric pacer finished with eleven wickets and de Villiers added a record-eualling eleven dismissals to go with a hundred as Pakistan were blown away by the tempest.

Both the spearhead of the attack and its wicketkeeper had snapped up six dismissals apiece in the first innings, and they added five more as Pakistan succumbed to give Graeme Smith an eventually easy victory in his hundredth Test at the helm. The overnight resistance in a 127-run partnership between Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq (64, 11 fours) and Asad Shafiq (seven fours in 56 off 168 balls) did not long survive the new ball, as Steyn (5 for 52) whistled through the lineup to finish with his best match figures.

While Shafiq had withdrawn into an obdurate shell after reaching his half-century last night, Misbah began the morning in more daring vein, flashing a couple of edges along with a brace of crisp cover drives before the new ball was taken. Steyn showed lethal control from his first ball onward, removing the set pair in consecutive overs; Shafiq fended gingerly off the back foot with an open face while Misbah was undone by a pearl of an out-swinger that nipped away off the middle-stump line to catch an edge through to de Villiers.

Sarfraz Ahmed didn’t last long, belatedly withdrawing from a shot only to catch an under edge into the stumps off Vernon Philander, but the tail wagged briefly with Umar Gul (23) in front; with the ball swerving away with remarkable consistency, the tail-enders showed an equally remarkable capacity for sparring and missing at the out-swingers, but when the bowlers shifted to the pads Gul did pick it up crisply over the leg-side. Finally, when Gul did feather one through to de Villiers off Steyn, the resistance sputtered out; Morne Morkel removed Saeed Ajmal and bowled Junaid Khan off a no-ball before, fittingly, Steyn returned to trap the tail-ender and finish with brilliant match figures of 11 for 60.