Pakistan Suffer a Heavy Defeat in Durban

A Brilliant Spell
By Saj Sadiq
December 8 2002

Pakistan came up against a clinical South African outfit, as Sami, Waqar and Razzaq struggled with their length. The Pakistani batting was a shambles, as the South African bowlers bowled to their field.

Having sat through and watched every ball of this match live, I can with all honesty say I was embarassed at what I saw today.

When I saw the teams that were announced my immediate thoughts were "only 5 bowlers selected", bearing in mind Sami is relatively inexperienced, Waqar has been going through a lean spell and Razzaq is only just returning from injury, it was a very risky policy. One has to realise that Pakistan does not have the luxury of any of their front line batsman being able to bowl a few fill-in overs.

The Pakistani bowling displayed the inconsistency that is notorious with this team. Wasim's 10 overs were a real joy to watch. His every delivery was watched in awe by the commentators. His technique, the seam position, the wrist position, his length just perfect. It was a lesson to all bowlers on how to bowl on South African pitches.

On the other hand Waqar looked like an over the hill medium pacer, bowling short and getting punished regularly by Smith, Rhodes and Pollock. Sami I thought tried to bowl too fast, insead of trying to bowl the right line and length he tried to bowl too much short stuff. It seemed like every one of his short deliveries was put away by the SA batsman. Unfortunately watching Razzaq bowl today was painful stuff. At least one rubbish ball per over was gratefully accepted by the South African's, as Razzaq's confidence seemed to deteriorate with every over.

It seemed like Waqar, Sami and Razzaq just couldn't realise that if you bowl short on this wicket you are gifting four or six runs to the batting team.

The partnership that took the game away from Pakistan was the Pollock/Rhodes partnership of 99 runs, although Waqar had Pollock out caught behind early in his innings, but was given not out. Both Pollock and Rhodes just accepted the presents from the Pakistani bowlers without having to take too many risks.

272 for 7 was always going to be a difficult chase against the South African bowlers who are backed up by an excellent fielding unit. The South African bowlers gave the Pakistani batsman nothing to hit and frustration led to some of them throwing their wickets away.

Not one of the Pakistani batsman displayed the required technique or mental toughness required to score 273 today. Taufeeq looked out of his depth, Saleem struggled with his footwork, Yousuf played a ridiculously poor shot for one so talented, Inzamam looked good in his brief stay but played a cut to a ball that was only just outside his off stump, once again poor shot selection. Younis Khan never looked fluent and his first attacking shot went straight to deep extra cover, Razzaq's batting was probably only just better than his bowling, I've never seen anyone play and miss Klusener's bowling so much. Wasim hit a couple of sixes and the remaining batsman just delayed the inevitable.

Overall a pathetic team effort, with the exception of Wasim Akram.

The Pakistani think tank need to look at the team selection, because I believe they got it all wrong today. They also need to look at the strengths of the SA batsman, because today they just bowled to Rhodes' and Pollock's strengths.

Was this just a bad day at the office or evidence of the difference in class between these 2 teams?