South Africa were in a good position at the end of the fourth day of the first Castle Lager Test against Pakistan at Supersport Park on Sunday. Chasing 199 to win, South Africa had 69 for two.
”It’s going to be tough,” said Proteas coach Mickey Arthur. ”We’ll definitely have a restless night tonight. We’re 130 away, and we’ve still got a long way to go. The spinners can take wickets, and they can also stop the game and make it difficult to score. We need some good partnerships.
”Hopefully, Jacques [Kallis] will be involved and the others can bat around him. He’s ideal for a pressure situation.
”The good thing about it is we did experience a similar situation in the last game [when South Africa chased down 211 to beat India by five wickets], but it’s still going to be tough, and the boys are prepared for it.”
When Pollock claimed the wicket of Pakistan captain Inzamam Ul-Haq for 35 with the score on 187 for six, thanks to a brilliant catch by AB de Villiers at short midwicket, the Proteas must have thought that they would be chasing less than 100 for victory.
But a spirited fightback by the tail-enders saw Pakistan set South Africa a target of 199 for victory, after a disappointing performance by some of the top order. A third of Pakistan’s total came from the tail with Shahid Nazir (40 off 35 balls), Rana Naved (33 off 41) and Danish Kaneria (23 off 23) taking the attack to the South Africans.
Even Mohammad Asif, who has a Test average of three, chipped in with eight and helped Kaneria get the score past 300. The normally economical Shaun Pollock conceded seven fours and two sixes, and Makhaya Ntini also saw one of his deliveries sailing over the boundary rope.
Paul Harris, who was wicketless in the first innings, made up for some of his fielding errors by taking four wickets for 46 runs — surpassing the four for 129 he took in his debut match against India in Cape Town last week, and it was he who got the last Pakistani wicket, after the pace-bowlers had been carted around the ground by the Pakistan tail.
”I thought we were brilliant in the way we executed our plans up to the new ball, but after that we were a bit sloppy and it cost us about 40 runs. We could have been facing 90 tomorrow [Monday], instead of 130,” said Arthur.
Good start
Graeme Smith and De Villiers opened the batting for South Africa and got off to a very good start, but De Villiers fell with the score on 20 when he was caught in the slips by Younis Khan off Mohammad Asif for 12. The 50 came up in 56 minutes, off 55 balls.
Smith and Hashim Amla took the score to 67, but with four minutes left before close of play, Smith was given out lbw to Mohammad Hafeez for 32. He had batted for just less than 90 minutes and faced 49 deliveries.
At close of play, Amla was not out on 17 and night watchman Paul Harris had one. Although South Africa will be reasonably confident of chasing down the runs, Pakistan’s spin-bowlers could do some damage on the last day.
Pakistan’s Imran Farhat said his team are confident of winning the Test. ”[Danish] Kaneria is a fantastic bowler, and we’ll be relying on him to do the job for us,” he said. ”It’s not an easy pitch, and it’s going to be hard for them to get those runs.”
Meanwhile, seven members of the public were evicted from the stadium on Sunday for repeated misbehaviour. Lodge Security events manager Trevor Jacobs said the South African team had complained about members of the public swearing at them. Three people were questioned, and two who admitted swearing at a member of the team were ejected.
”Alcohol plays a role in a lot of the misbehaviour at the ground,” said Jacobs. ”We try to reason with people, but if their behaviour persists, we make them leave the stadium.”
In another unsavoury instance, one of the South Africans was overheard on the stump microphone making abusive comments. Arthur, convener of selectors Haroon Lorgat and Proteas media manager Gordon Templeton are to view footage of the incident, and a statement is expected on Monday.
”It hasn’t gone to the match referee or anything,” said Arthur. ”But there have been emails; there have been complaints. It’s something we don’t like happening, and it’s certainly is something the South African team doesn’t stand for. But I think we need to review it, and review the context in which the remarks were made. Gerald [Majola] knows about it, and I think the statement must come from him.” — Sapa