AB
de Villiers racked up his third half-century of the series, in which he also
scored a hundred, to guide South Africa to victory in their chase in Benoni
with six overs to spare, sealing a 3-2 win for the hosts. De Villiers put in
his best all-round performance in the decider, as he manned his chargers well
and anchored the chase, albeit a modest one, reports Cricinfo.
South Africa closed out the series largely due to Pakistan’s inability to do
the same, rather than being dominant.
Apart from de Villiers’ knock, the game
changed in the space of four balls in the Pakistan innings when Shoaib Malik
and Shahid Afridi both succumbed softly in the 35th over bowled by Ryan McLaren
and abandoned the captain and lower order to nothing more than hope.
Malik and Afridi were guilty of poor shot-selection, they undid the work done
by the batsmen before and left the lower order too much to do. They also did
little justice to Pakistan’s initial recovery after they found themselves in
early trouble at 31 for 2 inside the first 10 overs.
Dale Steyn delivered a classic delivery to remove Mohammad Hafeez for the sixth time on this tour and take his 100th ODI wicket. Hafeez was forced to play at one that angled into him and then straightened and was caught at second slip. Imran Farhat followed shortly afterwards. After being worked over by Morne Morkel’s awkward bounce, he edged a standard Lonwabo Tsotsobe delivery through to de Villiers.
Dale Steyn delivered a classic delivery to remove Mohammad Hafeez for the sixth time on this tour and take his 100th ODI wicket. Hafeez was forced to play at one that angled into him and then straightened and was caught at second slip. Imran Farhat followed shortly afterwards. After being worked over by Morne Morkel’s awkward bounce, he edged a standard Lonwabo Tsotsobe delivery through to de Villiers.
An under-pressure Younis Khan had Kamran Akmal to thank for buying him some time
and the pair built the best stand of the innings. Kamran peppered the area
through point frequently to keep the score moving. Younis eventually settled
and also brought up his 7000 ODI runs. The pair put Pakistan in a good
position, but could not build on it.
Having slog-swept Robin Peterson for six successfully and with his half-century looming, Kamran tried it again but top-edged to hand a catch to McLaren. Two overs later, Younis mowed part-timer Farhaan Behardien to midwicket where Hashim Amla timed his jump to end what has been a lean series for Younis.
Having slog-swept Robin Peterson for six successfully and with his half-century looming, Kamran tried it again but top-edged to hand a catch to McLaren. Two overs later, Younis mowed part-timer Farhaan Behardien to midwicket where Hashim Amla timed his jump to end what has been a lean series for Younis.
Shoaib Malik and Misbah combined to a produce a similar recovery in which they
targeted Peterson and tried to be more conservative against the seamers. BRIEF
SCORE: South Africa 208 for 4 (De Villiers 95*, Behardien 35, Irfan 2-38) beat
Pakistan 205 (Akmal 48, McLaren 3-32) by six wickets
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