South Africa complete Pakistan route by 117 runs

Sharjah: Having already won the series 3-1, skipper AB de Villiers came to the party in the final ODI with a scintillating unbeaten knock of 115 off 102 deliveries as South Africa completed the rout of Pakistan by 117 runs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium yesterday.

Wayne Parnell immerged as the best bowler for South Africa, with figures of 3 for 36 from his seven overs as Pakistan were bundled out in 35.5 overs. Vernon Philander, Ryan McLaren and JP Duminy all chipped in with two wickets each.

There was no Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel or Imran Tahir but Philander, McLaren and Wayne Parnell provided the same depth to the South African bowling attack. The Pakistan top order was blown away quickly. Ahmed Shahzad, Mohammed Hafeez and Umar Amin were all cooling their heels back in the pavilion with the scoreboard reading 17 for 3.

Sohaib Maqsood, who impressed with a half century on debut, was the only player to show some spine. He once again put up a defiant knock of 53 as wickets kept falling all around him. With two back-to-back impressive knocks, Maqsood clearly looks to be a long term prospect for Pakistan and it will be interesting to see how he performs in the T20 format in two days time.

Earlier, De Villiers, whose century knock was studded with 10 boundaries and three sixes, also became the first South African batsmen to reach 6000 ODI runs in 147 innings. He was also involved in a crucial partnership of 83 runs for the sixth wicket with Ryan McLaren (27).

Such was the onslaught towards the end that the 50th over bowled by Sohail Tanvir read 4, 3, 4, 6, 4, 4. Considering that the Proteas hit only 114 in the first 30 overs, it was great effort from the skipper to see his side to a challenging total of 268 for 7.

Tanvir’s bowling figures painted a sorry picture in the end: 8-0-58-0. For Pakistan, Saeed Ajmal emerged as the best bowler with 3 for 45. Junaid Khan claimed two wickets, while Mohammad Irfan and Hafeez had one apiece.

While South Africa chose to rest their frontline bowlers, Pakistan opted to persist with the injury-prone Irfan, who has been clearly over used and has already bowled over 110 overs, including the two Tests.

With the T20 series to follow and the hurried squeezed in return series against South Africa lined-up, pushing Irfan to a breaking point appears an unwise decision.

Lady luck has been cruel on Misbah-ul-Haq as he lost his fourth successive toss in the series yesterday. A frustrated skipper could not resist saying: “I think both sides of the coin are heads. We needed to bat first, especially under the lights.”

Irfan provided Pakistan with an early breakthrough by claiming the key wicket of Hashim Amla, who was out leg-before for three from the fifth ball of the day.

South Africa’s centurion in the last match, Quinton de Kock, continued where he had left, the 20-year-old hammering four boundaries on the trot off Irfan’s third over. The first one went from front of square, the second through mid-on, the third to the fine-leg fence and the fourth almost identical to the third but with the ball missing his leg stump by inches.

A fluent-looking De Kock (35) fell leg-before to spinner Ajmal and, two overs later, Duminy handed a simple catch to Shehzad at silly mid-on off Hafeez. With spinners getting plenty of assistance from the wicket, the Proteas were in a spot of bother at 64 for 3. Faf du Plessis and de Villiers then batted cautiously and put up a partnership of 62 runs for the fourth wicket. A watchful du Plessis made a handy 45 off 89 deliveries before finding Sohail Tanvir at deep square leg off Khan, who had been ineffective until then.

Ajmal then induced a tame return catch from David Miller to leave South Africa in a spot of bother at 150 for 5 after 39 overs. De Villiers then took charge and reached his 50 with a six off Ajmal over mid-wicket and thereafter was on a roll, with South Africa scoring a total of 104 runs in the last 10 overs.