Proteas fall to Farhat’s sword
Series now poised for grand finale
PAKISTAN opening batsman Imran Farhat scored 93 runs to guide the tourists to a three-wicket victory over the Proteas, whose ODI inconsistency continued yesterday. It levelled the five-match series at 2-2. Pakistan made 236/7 in 48.4 overs to take the game.
Hashim Amla slashing wildly and getting caught behind off the first ball of the match set a bad tone for the entire encounter. Durban was looking forward to seeing its son make a bagful of them on home soil. It didn't happen.
Colin Ingram was welcomed to the crease with the perfect in-swinging yorker in the second ball by Muhammad Irfan as SA struggled at nought for two in two balls.
Graeme Smith – adding further questions about his place in the squad with a fourth consecutive failure – walked across his stumps and Junaid Khan bowled him.
When Farhaan Behardien was caught behind with the score on 38, Pakistan had cornered the Proteas into a position where one more loss of a wicket would expose their long tail and spell the end of the contest.
It would have been much worse if Farhat had not dropped David Miller at midwicket when he was on nine.
Miller survived to make his highest ODI score, 67, under the guidance of captain courageous, A B de Villiers.
De Villiers was again the anchor of another century partnership, following up on the record third wicket stand he shared with Amla in Johannesburg last Sunday. The skipper played simple but effective strokes that kept the scoreboard ticking.
He and Miller knocked the Pakistan spin trinity of Muhammad Hafeez, Ajmal and Shahid Afridi all around the park. Miller grew confident while Pakistan became anxious – 38/4 in the 10th over had become 151/4 by the 33rd.
But Miller tried to paddle a turning ball from Ajmal that trapped him in line with the stumps.
It was a crippling blow to the Proteas’ resistance as Miller never got a chance to clear the ropes the way the Durban crowd knows he can do.
De Villiers followed him back into the dugout four overs later. Having driven Ajmal through the covers in the previous ball, he tried to sweep the next one but only managed to edge behind to the wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal on 75.
With De Villiers went all hope of SA posting a competitive total but a late Robin Peterson and Rory Kleinveldt 30-run partnership helped the Proteas hobble to 234/9.