Dynamic Win for Pakistan against South Africa at Lahore 1st ODI 2003 Highlights

Boeta Dippenaar did his best, fighting off heat and humidity, testing spells from Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, the wiles of Mushtaq Ahmed and Shoaib Malik, and hundreds of insects swarming under the lights of the Gaddafi stadium, but in the end Pakistan's total of 277 proved to be just out of the reach of the South Africans. A nerveless final over from Mohammad Sami left them nine runs short of their target, as top-flight cricket returned to Pakistan for the first time since May 2002.

Pakistan's innings was no less riveting, especially the last ten overs. South Africa had kept them under control for most part, but then a spectacular innings by Shoaib Malik, who made 82 off 41 balls and hit five sixes in the last two overs alone, undid all the good work done by South Africa in the first 40 overs of the innings, and took Pakistan to 276 for 6.

After Malik's late charge, Pakistan would have fancied their chances under lights with a full-strength bowling attack, but it turned out to be not so easy after all. Akhtar and Sami beat the bat often in searching first spells, and the first seven overs of the innings yielded just 22. But Smith and Dippenaar, opening the innings in place of the injured Herschelle Gibbs, hung on grimly in difficult conditions, and scrapped it out till the runs began to come a little more easily. Once the opening bowlers were off, the two batsmen took every opportunity to attack the second string. The first 15 overs went for 79, as the two batsmen continued to keep abreast of the asking rate while keeping their wickets intact.

But with Smith struggling with cramp, and calling for a runner, it became evident that he would go after the bowling before fatigue overwhelmed him totally, and Inzamam saw his chance and brought Akhtar back for a second spell. Akhtar immediately removed Smith, chipping a catch tamely to mid-on, and then, steaming in at full throttle at the new batsman Jacques Kallis, beat him for pace with a short ball and got him to chop it down onto his stumps (140 for 2).

In hindsight, South Africa would consider that they let the game slip away in a little period of play at this juncture of the game. Neil McKenzie came out to join Dippenaar, and with the asking-rate climbing to well over six an over, Inzamam removed Shoaib from the attack and asked the batsmen to force the pace against the spin of Mushtaq and Malik. McKenzie was entirely clueless against the wiles of Mushtaq, and the two batsmen scratched around for several overs. As the overs slipped by, but no increase in the run-rate could be effected, both batsmen acquired an increasingly frantic air.

Twice McKenzie skied the ball into the offside in trying to hit down the ground, and both times he was dropped, first by Abdul Razzaq and then by Inzamam. Runs came in fits and starts, although South Africa would have begun to hope again when 16 came off the 43rd over of the innings, bowled by Mushtaq.

But with South Africa needing 37 from the last four overs, Akhtar returned again for a third and final spell, and dismissed a tired McKenzie with a clever slower ball (241 for 3). Mark Boucher came out to replace McKenzie, and his wild swipe at Akhtar off his very first ball told observers that this was a contest that could have only one conclusion. Three balls later, Akhtar knocked out his leg-stump with an inswinging yorker. And in the next over, Shaun Pollock hit the ball he received to straight to Inzamam at cover and departed for a first-ball duck.

All this while, Dippenaar had kept one end up, and with the match having almost slipped away, he lofted Akhtar for four in the penultimate over to bring up his hundred, and then played an astonishing stroke to bring South Africa back into contention, an effortless flicked six off the same bowler that brought the target down to 14 off seven balls. But that was the closest that South Africa came to scenting victory.

Pakistan owed their victory, though, to Malik as much as to Akhtar. Malik came in with Pakistan 167 for 4 in the 39th over.

Dynamic hitting from Shoaib Malik and South Africa's lack of acclimatisation combined to edge a close encounter Pakistan's way. Malik transformed their final total from useful to formidable by hammering six fours and six sixes, mostly in the arc between square leg and long-off, in an innings lasting just 41 balls. In the face of that onslaught, South Africa's fielders wilted in the humidity. And then they wilted with the bat after Smith and Dippenaar replied with a rousing partnership of 138 in 27 overs. Dippenaar, drafted in to open in place of the injured Gibbs, scored a maiden one-day hundred in his 63rd match. But the combination of the heat exhaustion, which afflicted both Smith and McKenzie, and the ferocious pace of both Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Sami were too much for South Africa.

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