De Villiers steers South Africa to solid total
Amla struck 13 fours in a 128-ball knock. -Photo by AP
CENTURION: An inexperienced Pakistan pace bowling line-up had South Africa in trouble before AB de Villiers steered the hosts to a respectable total on the first day of the third and final Test at SuperSport Park here on Friday.
De Villiers made an unbeaten 98 as South Africa reached 334 for six.
De Villiers and Hashim Amla, who made a sparkling 92, were the only top-order batsmen to play significant innings against a three-man Pakistan bowling attack with only two Test caps between them.
Rahat Ali and Ehsan Adil, neither of whom had taken a wicket in Test cricket before, were responsible for the first five dismissals as South Africa stumbled to 196 for five.
Left-arm Rahat, playing in his second Test, took three for 95, while new cap Adil, 19, took two for 54.
Amla looked set for his 20th Test century before edging a drive against a wide delivery from Rahat to be caught behind by wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.
He struck 13 fours in a 128-ball innings and shared partnerships of 69 for the third wicket with Faf du Plessis (29) and 79 for the fourth wicket with De Villiers.
With the South Africans missing star all-rounder Jacques Kallis becaue of a calf injury, De Villiers took over responsibility for batting out the day.
He shared a sixth wicket stand of 52 with Robin Peterson, who made 28 before being run out, and an unbeaten seventh-wicket partnership of 86 with Vernon Philander (45 not out).
De Villiers faced 179 balls and hit 13 fours.
Although they produced wicket-taking deliveries, both Rahat and Adil were inconsistent and sent down enough loose deliveries for South Africa to maintain a scoring rate of close to four runs an over for much of the day.
Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, the only experienced bowler in the side, was easily the most economical, conceding 70 runs in 26 overs.
Pakistan finished the day a bowler short after Adil limped off with what appeared to be a hamstring strain after sending down just one delivery with the second new ball.
The injury to Kallis meant a reshuffle to the South African team. He was replaced by fast-medium bowler Kyle Abbott, 25, who earned his first cap after being called into the squad as cover earlier in the week.
Abbott topped the wicket-takers in the domestic first-class competition, taking 49 wickets for the Dolphins at an average of 15.36.
It was the first time this season that South Africa had gone into a Test match without seven specialist batsmen.
South Africa, who had already clinched the series by winning the first two Tests, had one other injury-enforced change, with Rory Kleinveldt replacing fellow fast bowler Morne Morkel.
Pakistan made three changes, with Imran Farhat replacing opening batsman Nasir Jamshed, while Rahat and Adil came in for Umar Gul and Tanvir Ahmed.
South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, A.B. de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Kyle Abbott, Rory Kleinveldt.
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil.
Pakistan is no match to South Africa . South Africa is way better team then Pakistan and that is truth. Lets enjoy the cricket you win some and lose some but Pakistan is loosing all the game so far that tells you South Africa is better team.
In my opinion SA team is superior & fully charged up. They are really the best cricket playing side at the moment. Home crowd & conditions have further added spices to their already tasty recipe of good cricketing. Team Pakistan is doing whatever they can. Lets enjoy cricket.
Pakistanis inept handling of the cricket crisis has always been indecipherable on foreign pitches.
Doesn’t it sound familiar? Good total being put up by the Proteas and followed (possibly) by Pakistan’s poor batting performance(s) with a possible 4th innings to bat……eventually losing by a substantial margin. What a pathetic outlook for the 3rd Test! Misbah says the more you play, the better you could get. But not Pakistan.Their morale is low, the in-fighting is discernible, the tactics are obsolete and their body language is anything but aggressive, which is what was required to give them the boost for the upcoming limited overs contests.
Wow!!
Another great fightback by SA!
Our opening partnership is poor now.
Kallis is out.
Faf is no NO4.
Dean Elgar needs to work on his technique in defence.
The shining lights the whole series were Amla and DeVilliers, and Robbie Peterson down the order.
But I am glad our tail is performing a bit again.
Several years ago, we had regular centuries from the tail when we had NO 8 batsmen like Mark Boucher, or No 9 like Lance Klusener…where are those days!!?
Now our talenders struggle to get 50!
So it is good to see Peterson and Philander batting well down the order…but we have problems at the top…
Can’t wait to see our pace attack, witht eh 2 new boys…should be interesting tomorrow!
Pakistan to chase about 400…
Nasir Jamshed should have been kept in place of Mohd. Hafeez. That would’ve been the bold statement to say that the team means business. Oh well …
All 6 wickets by quickies so far including the run out by Irfan at 264/6. I shudder to think what SA quickies will do as this is most successful ground for them in history.
All the best for a good game of cricket. Relax and enjoy ….its just a game. Senti na ho bhape!
With 104/2 at lunch, the pitch is easing and the SA will look for a big partnership.
Why Farhat? Whose sifarish is it this time? He won’t even last a ball longer than Jamshed.
I agree WHY Imran farhat? The answer is because his father-in-law is member of selection
commette. in every tour he is gifted the tour