One more chapter added to the history of The Proteas, a history which they are attempting to rewrite at every big tournament on the world stage. However hard they try, they are not able to erase the blemish of chokers tag they carry, a small exception being the 1998 Champions trophy win at Dhaka.
If it was the rain gods at Sydney in 1992, Shane Warne & Donald at Edgbaston in 1999, it was Afridi and Gul today at Trent Bridge, the result the same in all instances, only the screen play differing. Any person who saw the match or the highlights today cannot question Pakistan's victory today, for a T2o match, I would say it was absolutley clinical victory.
The way Kamran Akmal started was an indication of the things about to come on the day. Akmal's cameo was the best knock of the day, his straight drive of Steyn which landed up above the sight screen still afresh in my memory. After Akmal went over Afridi took over, certainly not fluently. He was trying to pull Kallis for consecutive balls but managed to whip the air alone. The next ball was what can be termed as one of the important points of the match. Afridi is a guy who goes all out, just like Shewag, he never cares what happened the previous ball, Kallis boosted by the 2 previous balls dug in another short one which pulled over mid wicket for a boundary, Afridi's first.
That over showed the shades of the recklessness shown by Donald in the final over of the 1999 world cup semifinal, Donald failed to see Klusner's call for the run and was sticking to the runners end, which spelled doom for South Africa. Here too, after Afridi had pulled him for a boundary, Kallis bound by recklessness or ego dug in two more short balls dispatched for a 2 and a boundary. From there was no stopping Afridi, until he himself decided that today's batting is enough and scooped a catch. Had Kallis been more resourceful, he would have frustrated Afridi and we all know that a frustrated Afridi is error prone.
Younis and Shoaib guided Pakistan to 149 after Afridi's dismissal, 20 runs short compared to their momentum during the middle of innings, which was more than enough for them.
A target of 149 would not have been a formidable one for this South African line up had they got an explosive start. However they were never allowed to bat freely from the start by Pakistani bowlers. Razzaq made sure that South Africa never slipped into top gear and he almost had Smith miscue to Gul, which Gul failed to hold on at mid-0ff. Smith didn't last long and was out to a frustrated shot the next over.
Then came Afridi into the attack with Gibbs & Kallis, the team's best players of spin batting, the contest was always going to be interesting.
2nd Ball - A typical leg spinner delivery, Gibbs committed too early and hence couldn't adjust to the ball which scurried in
3rd ball -Tapped to mid wicket for a single
4th ball - Bounce and late spin which left Kallis bamboozled.
5th ball - Single to square leg
6th ball - Outside the off stump and kicked in with bounce. Gibbs was expecting a ball like Kallis had, but this one came in and rattled the wood work. Gibbs was again at the receiving end of a beautiful ball, certainly not like this one, but good enough to catch him off the guard.
In the second over of his spell, Afridi bowled a clever delivery from the back of his hand which skidded instead of bouncing on the track. De Villers failed to spot that and tried to cut him which got an inside edge, because of the low bounce, which hit the stumps.
The spinners reined in the run rate by bowling intelligently. Umar Gul came on 13th over and bowled a spell which was mesmerizing. Ball after ball landed in the block hole offering nothing for the batsmen. The game was almost closed before it came to the last over.
One feeling which I got was at the fall of De Villers wicket, Boucher should have come in instead of Duminy. The reason is Afridi and Saeed Ajmal were bowling in Tandem, with Kallis at the other end there must be somebody who should be able to accelerate the score and also who is adept at playing spin. I bet Boucher on any day is a better player of spin than Duminy, that shuffle might have made the game more competitive.
I feel that during the crunch matches, South Africa try to be cautious and curb their aggressive instinct, perhaps they are curbing it too much. I hope to see Sri Lanka get to the finals, if they do it will be an interesting finale to this edition of T20 world cup. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are the best bowling sides in the tournament, it would be interesting to see them clash.
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