Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
selectors should look at this and wonder why they did'nt include shoaib akhtar....i think whoever made the decision not to include Akhtar should get fired...I am sure its that hot shot Fat sob Bari.Asif can't bowl 90 overs he needed support from the other end which did'nt come.kaneria once again proved thats hes a bit overrated...selectors should seriously look at rahman for the future.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
^ They were banking on Gul as well in absence of Akhtar but he got injured.. too bad..
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
^gul is ok..nothing too special about him.on this flat track he probably would have struggled too although would have bowled better than rana and nazir.u needed extra pace which would have put them on the back foot.dropping akhtar was a big blunder
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
Agree - Gul is OK but nothing special.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
The balance tilted away towards SA, too bad no other bowler couldn’t damage SAffies. Hopefully in 1st session of tomorrow we will see 2-3 wickets and remaining in 2nd session, lead could extend upto 50-70 runs.
Pakistan can still pull it :insha: 
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
New ball will be the key. If we manage to strike early with it, we are back in the match, otherwise it will be a struggle :(
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
If you think about it, the team selection was not right - looking at the average of Rana and then no 4th seam bowler (Razzaq's replacement would be Arafat or someone similar). But instead its Faisal who cant even bat.
Its gonne be hard to restrict them to less than 400 unless Asif does some magic with the new ball in the morning conditions.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
by the way, it was a very lame excuse that shoaib couldn't get flites. There are so many ways of finding flites these days thru creative routing, that its not possible for someone NOT to find a flite.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
^hes not gonna be played in the test series anyway..thats what inzamam and woolmer have been saying.what the f these fat asses know about fitness anyway.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
They think Pakistan can win overseas without Shoaib and we saw what happened in England test series and now this... I am very disappointed in Shahid Nazir though, I had high hopes for him, specially after his 5 wicket haul in the tour game.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
Nothing is lost yet, SA played well and pPakistan didn’t capitalized coz the other bowlers did not perform, irony these are the players who performed in the practice match with the exception of Yasir. still days to go. Goodluck team Paksitan
P.S> dont give so MANY extra’s!!! 
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
:biggthumb
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
Need to restricy saf lead to c. 50 , so thats another 110 runs to play with. Need someone to stand up alongside Asif.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
We are also missing some of the key talent in our team
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/mar022005/img/tn_11.jpg
Let me throw a machis ki teeley !
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
^ does the bearded guy play cricket?
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
bhai jaan with just 9 Test matches, its hard to establish "average", he did have some long bad patch (SL, Eng and WI series??) but he did bowl good in the ODIs of WI as well as the domestic competitions, so his inclusion is justified.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
Again my comments will spin many people heads but on such a track PAK should have included Sami instead of Rana. He got pace and some odd deliveries could cause trouble, especially if partnership is long. Plus I would also have gone for Afridi or Asim for Faisal, because afridi gives you an extra bowler and Asim allow a right left combination in the middle of the inning. PAK will be banking on Kaneria for 4th innings but once SA have 150-200 lead in first innings then Kaneria may not need to try even in fourth innings.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
Let us hope they regroup and come back better prepared tomorrow. I am expecting Asif to take one or two wickets before lunch. If he can get some support from others, the lead may be restricted to a small one.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
Prince and Gibbs are still at it.
New ball taken, Asif in.
Re: South Africa vs Pakistan, 1st Test, 11th-15th January @ Centurion
u think asif might be able to grab all 10 wkts in this innings (assuming that all 10 wkts will fall)....