South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

Entertainment Cricket and Other Sports
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Odds favour South Africa but a chance for Pakistan to improve their dismal ODI record against South Africa

Head to head: SA (38 wins), Pak (18), Tied (1)

**Pakistan has yet to beat SA in an ODI series. **
In the 90s, we lost an unprecedented 14 matches in a row against SA

Our lowest winning percentage (32.14%) is also against South Africa. That’s even worse than our record against Australia which is 36.62%.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283885.html

Forecast: mostly Sunny

Start time: 08:00 GMT | 10:00 local (South Africa), 13:00 (PST)

Azhar Ali should never have been selected for the ODIs. Ahmed Shehzad should be in our ODI XI i.e. Nasir-Shehzad L-R combo with Hafeez coming in at 1-down

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re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

**Champions Trophy the focus for both teams
**Champions Trophy the focus for both teams | Cricket News | South Africa v Pakistan | ESPN Cricinfo

**Form guide
**(Most recent first)
**South Africa: ** WLLWL
Pakistan: LWWLW

South Africa: (probable) 1 Graeme Smith 2 Hashim Amla 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 Faf du Plessis, 6 Farhaan Behardien/David Miller, 7 Ryan McLaren 8 Robin Peterson 9 Rory Kleinveldt, 10 Kyle Abbott, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe If Pakistan go with an XI that is as close as possible to the one that beat India, they will probably play Younis Khan at No.3, leaving no place for Umar Akmal. Shahid Afridi will find a spot at No.7 with Kamran Akmal hanging on to the gloves and Junaid Khan, Umar Gul and Mohammed Irfan making up the pace trio.

Pakistan: (probable) 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Mohammed Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Kamran Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Umar Gul, 9 Saeed Ajmal 10 Junaid Khan, 11 Mohammed Irfan

**Pitch and conditions:

**A surface that is generally as flat as the landscape around it has been good to batsmen in the past. Since 2005, the average innings total has been 253 which includes fixtures against Zimbabwe and Kenya. It will be hard work for all concerned, with a sluggish surface promising to test temperament as it did in the fixture against Sri Lanka early last year. No rain is forecast and typical hot, dry Free State weather will welcome the teams with temperatures to settle at around 26 degrees Celsius.

**Stats and Trivia:
**- South Africa need to beat Pakistan 5-nil to rise to No.1 on the ODI rankings from No. 4. Pakistan lie in sixth place.

  • Pakistan have achieved the most ODI series whitewashes - 17. The last time was in the 2011-12 season against Bangladesh. South Africa have blanked teams 12 times. Neither has ever achieved the feat against the other .
  • South Africa are the team that have won the most times off the last ball of a match - seven. Pakistan have managed the same five times.
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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

No Ahmed Shahzad is a big dissappointment. Typical PCB selection.

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

The tail is too long, With hafeez as one of the bowlers another batsmen should play instead of Irfan.

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

At least Hafeez and Misbah are battle-tested.

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

**​Pakistan have won the toss and elected to field.

batting and defending is Pak's strong point not chasing.**

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

Teams:

[TABLE=“class: inningsTable, width: 630”]
[TR=“class: inningsHead, bgcolor: #D9EFFD”]
South Africa team
[/TR]

GC Smith, HM Amla, CA Ingram, AB de Villiers*†, F du Plessis, F Behardien, R McLaren, RJ Peterson, RK Kleinveldt, KJ Abbott, LL Tsotsobe

[TABLE=“class: inningsTable, width: 630”]
[TR=“class: inningsHead, bgcolor: #D9EFFD”]

Pakistan team
[/TR]

Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Misbah-ul-Haq*, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal†, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

So basically apart from the openers, the rest are all Tuk Tuk.

No Umar Akmal, another pathetic decision

No Steyn today, so Hafeez might thrive again

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

ONLY TWO SEAMERS . . .

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

^ That is understandable. They have strengthened the batting, Afridi coming in at #8

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

19/0 after 6 overs

Gul in particular has bowled well

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

This is a big ground like Melbourne. plenty of 2s and 3s on offer for both teams

Pakistan need wickets

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

solid start by SA

50/0 after 10 overs

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

pathetic Keeping . . .

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

South Africa 72/1 (13.5 ov)

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

South Africa 83/2 (16.2 ov)

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

Afridi Last Over

4 4 1 4 4 4

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

A great over by the legend Afridi:

[TABLE="class: commsTable, width: 630"]

39.6

Shahid Afridi to du Plessis, FOUR

39.5

Shahid Afridi to du Plessis, FOUR, nothing streak about this shot. Short, wide, cut away in front of square

James: "I reckon hawkeye would have been "umpires call" for whether it hit the stumps. It would have saved them a few minutes to just check that first before going back to check whether he hit it."

39.4

Shahid Afridi to du Plessis, FOUR, du Plessis gives him the charge, is nowhere near the pitch of the ball, gets a thick edge over point for four

39.3

Shahid Afridi to Ingram, 1 run, pushed to deep point for one

39.2

Shahid Afridi to Ingram, FOUR, top shot. Flighted outside off, and he crashes it between mid-off and cover

39.1

Shahid Afridi to Ingram, FOUR, pulled away to the left of Nasir Jamshed at deep square leg, who goes down slow and with one hand, and concedes three extra runs

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

232/3 off 40

Are we looking at 300

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Re: South Africa v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Bloemfontein, 10th March

320+ . . . :chai: