 Pakistan play South Africa in the second ODI of the five-match series at Abu Dhabi. South Africa lead the series 1-0 after winning their third successive game in
the series and will look to make it 2-0 when the two sides meet again on Sunday.
It is very evident that the Pakistanis are struggling with their batting and
have crumbled on more than one occasion. In fact, in the previous game, the
Pakistan looked like they could get to 270 plus at one stage - having
got to 140/1 in 35 overs with the batting powerplay still remaining. However,
a strange looking, but now familiar collapse after the fall of Mohammad Hafeez's
wicket meant that the side had struggled to get to 200.
Click for Live Score Card of Pakistan Vs South AfricaReally, if anything, the law of averages now needs to catch up with the Pakistanis
and they need to get going with the bat. If not, captain Shahid Afridi
will need to answer a lot of questions and it will remain to be seen how they
overcome it.
Thankfully, the side had shown some intent in the first ODI. However, what
could be an issue is that on three successive occasions, the Pakistanis have
batted first - if they bat second and chase under pressure, things could get
more difficult for the team. Umar Akmal exclusion wasn't totally surprising.
South Africa have been clinical so far. Again, there was no sign of Dale Steyn in the previous game but and yet, Lonwobo Tsotsobe bowled like a champion.
His 4/27 was his best spell in international cricket and that pegged the Pakistanis
back. Apart from him, the spinner Johan Botha also bowled well enough and the
middle-order just did not take enough responsibilities.
However, what stood out was the way that South Africa batted in the innings.
The heat was so bad that most players who played for a certain lengths of time
were getting cramps and yet the batsmen stuck it out and did not give it away.
That is something that the Pakistani side will need to learn from the South
Africans given that the heat will probably not go away throughout the series.
Jacques Kallis' 50 and Duminy's continuing form is a good thing for South Africa and they will look to get into the driver's seat by going 2-0 up.
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