OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sharjah | Thursday 11.20am.
THERE is only one thing standing between South Africa and victory in the Sharjah Cup final, and it travels somewhere in the region of 150km/h over 22 yards of pitch, giving one unlucky enough to be in its way a breath short of a second to decide what to do with it.
Pakistan sport what is arguably the finest pace-attack on the planet, with Shaoib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq partnering the Sultans of Swing — Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram — with the new ball. But such is the nature of the Pakistani team that a ten-wicket win one week can be easily followed by a ten-wicket defeat the next.
On song, the Pakistani batsmen are fearsome hitters, capable of demoralising any attack. On their off day, which some would argue is most days, they are frighteningly mediocre.
On Friday, Hansie Cronje and his Proteas will be hoping for an off-day.
Cronje and his men looked unbeatable in the Sharjah Cup, but that was before they lost more than half their batsmen for 27 runs to an unbelievable spell of fast, accurate bowling in the final dress-rehearsal on Tuesday.
The South Africans will curse their luck at having their 14-match unbeaten streak against the Pakistanis broken on Tuesday, but it is quite certain that not many teams would have remained standing in the face of such an onslaught.
The Proteas will be back at full-strength on Friday, and the added batting will make it harder for the Pakistanis to engineer a collapse. Jacques Kallis, Cronje and Gibbs should be in amongst the runs if they can stick it out for a while.
The Proteas’ bowling and fielding has been good through the entire tournament, and they will be looking to restrict the Pakistanis to a total below 200 runs.
Shaun Pollock has been impressive and Nantie Hayward is no less menacing a customer than Shaoib or Waqar. Hayward has bowled consistently fast and he has the ability to really intimidate batsmen.
If they can keep the opposition’s scoring in check and bat effectively against the pace and hostility of the Rawalpindi Express and Waqar and Wasim, who sport just under 720 one-day wickets between them, we may see them lifting the Sharjah Cup again.
One thing is certain.
Come Friday, most of us will be glad we’re not walking to the middle with just willow twig in our hands and a glorified teapot on our heads.