An uncharacteristically determined batting display by the middle order and the tail and then some quick wickets late in the fourth day to halt the South Africans’ unrelenting march, meant http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 were in with a fair chance of drawing the second test match
at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and maybe even an outside one of winning it if they played well enough.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 started the final day in the same conservative state of mind that they had shown at the end of the 4th day. They went on to lose the wicket of Mark Boucher to an Umar Gul in-dipper that kept a bit low, and to stretch their lead to
353 before finally declaring their innings at 203 for 5, which was perhaps too late to give them a realistic chance of winning the Test match.
Pakistan’s two openers who have shown good form over their last 3 innings albeit giving their wickets away cheaply sometimes, batted well to reinforce the belief in their side that they could save the game.
The good thing about the Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar partnership was that despite the obvious pressure they did not get too bogged down at any point in the morning session. Mohammad Hafeez particularly demonstrated the good form which he has carried
over from the limited overs games, and was definitely the aggressor in the partnership which had amounted to 66 runs in 19 overs till the end of the session.
Pakistan must be given credit for keeping the interest of the fans alive in an encounter that was seemingly going to culminate in nothing but an inevitable draw until lunch, but that was done in a way which would not have been appreciated by any Pakistan
fans. For what looked like a stable opening partnership was broken immediately after lunch and in a bizarre turn of events the Pakistan team had gone from 66 for no loss to 66 for 3. First http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173 had settled opener Taufeeq Umar lbw just after the break,
and then to compound Pakistan’s troubles even further left arm spinner Paul Harris removed Mohammad Hafeez and Younis Khan in quick succession.
Pakistan then had again transformed a relatively simple task into one that suddenly looked out of their reach. The onus was now again on captain Misbah ul Haq and young Azhar Ali, to defy the South Africans for as long as they could, just as they had done
in the first innings. Misbah was particularly good against the spinners, mixing his effective even if somewhat ungainly looking defence, with sweetly hit boundaries on both sides of the wicket, in fact one ferocious pull shot from him caught short leg fielder
Hashim Amla full near the wrist causing him to leave the field, while Azhar kept him good company mostly defending anything that was thrown at him.
The partnership took the score past the 100-run mark, despite the efforts of the South African assault which was led by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn and Harris, in the process lending a bit of sanity to the proceedings as far as Pakistan were concerned. The pair batted well
to take Pakistan into tea at 127 for 3 rendering it almost impossible for South Africa to win the match, since they would have had to take an improbable 7 wickets in the last session to win the match.
The two batted even more patiently as the South Africans explored every avenue open to them without result. Captain Misbah brought up another gritty fifty as Pakistan looked well in control to seal a draw. And a draw it was officially called to be a short
while after the announcement of the final hour of play, with Pakistan’s score at 153 for 3 and Misbah not out on 58, while Azhar Ali playing another one of his vigilant knocks remained not out on 28 off 135 balls showcasing his powers of concentration and
determination.
The series must have instilled a new belief into the Pakistani team that they can fight it out against the better teams in the world, but for South Africa the series spells a host of missed opportunities, especially when it came to applying the killer blow
in the bowling department. The drawn series, however, must have been an interesting watch for both countries’ fans as well as neutral cricket lovers.
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