****Official****Pakistan in South Africa

[stumpski]

Result you would have expected at lunch on Thursday, but I wasn't expecting this to finish today. 13 wickets for 250, highlights should make good viewing later.

[Xuhaib]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

Pakistan are definitely the fourth best team in the world for mine. 1 v 4 in 1's home conditions does always have a fair chance of being too much of a mismatch though, especially when the home conditions of the sides in question are so different.

If anything this series has been closer so far than I expected at the start; I remember you blokes (smali mainly, ironically enough) ripping into me for saying you'd get smashed because your batting was crap and your pace attack wasn't anywhere near good enough to make up for that.

yeah I rember agreeing with you but I also said Ajmal will be a factor in one game and this is where Pakistan has to seize the opportunity by putting enough runs for him I guess this was the game and we missed our boat and I am expecting 3-0 now. I think a lot of us did not realize how crap Gul has become we only needed one fastmen to support Ajmal here along with 50 + runs and result might have gone otherwise.

Infact if you look at this series apart from that 49 all out Pakistan top order has competed well with SA top order its the difference in the lower order that won Sa this game.

Pakistan 253/5 Sa 109/5
Paksitan 159/5 Sa 169/5

[Neil Pickup]

Just turned the highlights on to see Sarfraz get out.

Possibly a new contender for "worst shot (or lack of) ever".

[hendrix]

All rather predictable in the end.

[hendrix]

Pakistan:
Scored 2 first innings centuries, yet failed to post 350. Had SA looking at a big first innings deficit, yet failed to finish them off. Had the opportunity to post a 250+ lead, yet lost 3 wickets in 3 balls.

Philander was excellent, rather surprised to see Robin Peterson take MOTM.

[smalishah84]

I am heart broken

[Spiced]

Wow, somehow SA get's themselves in deep trouble where the other team is the favorite to win but end up winning. We choke and we still win, so not like our ODI team.

[akilana]

What a choke by pakistan.
They couldn't have asked for a better pitch in SA to earn a win.
Hopefully, the next test is played on a similar pitch. It's little bit more fun and also SA's lower middle order needs to be tested and replaced if it's not firing.
Virus and Elgar may be bit under pressure.

[8ankitj]

Steyn and Philander average 10 and 13 in the series. This is beyond ridiculous.

[hendrix]

Originally Posted by Spiced

Wow, somehow SA get's themselves in deep trouble where the other team is the favorite to win but end up winning.

Honestly, it's a pretty typical top dog vs volatile mid-table test match.

In the end the top team held out for longer. Aus used to do this all the time.

[Agent Nationaux]

Next match at Centurian will be similar to the first at Johannesburg. So expect Steyn and Philander to average even lower after the series is over.

This really was our best opportunity to take a win. Needed a better bowler than Gul and Grunter to support Ajmal and Irfan and should have batted better in the second innings. I'm sure if we had Junaid we would have won.

[Jono]

Gul and Tanvir were **** etc. etc. But this match was definitely lost when Misbah decided to bat like a dumb **** to Petersen and Shafiq and Sarfraz thought it'd be a good idea to watch the ball hit their stumps without doing anything about it.

250+ would have been a really good total to defend. Of course the Saffers could have won, they didn't really "only" win by 4 wickets, those 2 late wickets don't exactly count. But if they were defending 250-270... well it could have been a really amazing finish.

[shoaib789]

yesterday pakistan have lost the 3 test match sereies by 4 wickets.but i hope in 3rd test pak ll come back in the game.And pak ll win 3rd test.

[NasserFan207]

This turned out to actually be quite a good game. But Pakistan are really hurt by their lack of explosive pace bowlers here, they can't just rely on Ajmal outside the subcontinent

[kykweer.proteas]

Why do people keep throwing the word "choke" around? Pak played on a pitch that suits them, did well on days 1 and 2 then were blown away on day 3 and 4, we outplayed them just like we did in Pakistan 2008 also in their conditions. Pakistan were put under pressure the whole second innings with good lines and lengths for over 70 overs and we never backed down. If SA bowled poorly, maybe we were lucky that Pakistan "choked" the truth is Pak was just bettered by SA.