South Africa will look to level the ODI series when they take on Pakistan in the second ODI at Kingsmead on Tuesday afternoon. The Proteas didn’t do much wrong in the first ODI in Port Elizabeth, but were comfortably beaten by the visitors, who extended their good run at the venue against the hosts.
Durban, like PE, is also on the coast, and is another venue where Pakistan fare quite well in the shorter formats of the game.
In PE, the Proteas gave debuts to Rassie van der Dussen and Duanne Olivier and went with a 6-2-3 split, playing two all rounders in the form of Dwaine Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo.
Van der Dussen scored 93 on debut while Olivier picked up two wickets but went for 73 runs, not quite being able to replicate his success from the test series, where he had the Pakistan batsmen hopping with his bouncers.
South Africa lost only two wickets in PE while batting first, but were only able to make 266 in their 50 overs. It was the first that a Hashim Amla century while batting first had resulted in defeat for the Proteas- his previous 20 had all finished in victories. The legendary star, a tad out of form, was perhaps guilty of taking too much time to reach his century, and his lack of urgency to press on the accelerator cost the Proteas, just as it had when Pakistan beat them by a run at the same venue back in 2013.
While it was a loss, nobody really did too much wrong, so we might see the same XI from the Proteas. If they do want to make a change or two, it could come in the form of an extra spinner, or the potential re-introduction of Aiden Markram back into the XI.
Pakistan were good in PE, with their spinners keeping a brakes on the scoring and Imam ul Haq and Mohammad Hafeez providing vital contributions with the bat. They didn’t allow South Africa to get away- the 266 the Proteas scored was the lowest by a side since their readmission while losing only two wickets. It was also the first time that Pakistan had won a game when their opponent had lost only two wickets while batting the full fifty in the first innings.
The visitors won here at Kingsmead when the two teams did battle back in 2013. South Africa scored 234/9 batting first, chased down by Pakistan with eight balls to spare. Imran Farhat and Misbah Ul Haq scored 93 and 80 respectively for the visitors, helping them win after they had been 33/3 at one stage. Neither of the two will be playing this game though. Mo Irfan, Junaid Khan and Saeed Ajmal picked up three wickets each that day, but like with the batting stars, this bowling troika will also not feature on Wednesday. Pakistan will need new heroes to step up if they wish to take a 2-0 lead.