South Africa vs Pakistan, 2nd T20I at Centurion, , Mar 03 2013 - Ball by Ball Commentary

Thanks everyone for sticking around. I just hope the pitch has not dropped. Firdose Moonda's report is being updated as I type. Thanks to Mazher, our statsman as well. This is Devashish Fuloria signing off. Ciao ciao.

Presentation:

Faf du Plessis: "Nothing went to plan. Mainly because of two things - Hafeez played a brilliant innings and our bowling didn't work to a plan. But our bowling did well in the last five overs to keep Pakistan to what we thought was a manageable total. But a five-for and an 80-odd completely changes the game. Pakistan are a dangerous team."

Man of the Match is Mohammad Hafeez: "The credit goes to the coaches, they really worked hard with me. I knew I was only one knock away. The mindset was clear and it was to play positive cricket. Everything I did, it worked for me today. The team was eager to perform as we didn't have a good time in Tests. Umar showed the way with brilliant bowling as he is the senior bowler. We were very happy with the crowd support. We showed character, we wanted to do well and it is a special occasion for everyone in the team. The win will help us going into the ODIs"

What a funny game that was! Pakistan, especially, Hafeez batted like there was no tomorrow and it all worked perfectly as they put up a mammoth total. Then South Africa started well, but probably were too dependent on AB. Once he went, Umar Gul and Hafeez again just blew away the South African batting like it was some club side. They fall to their lowest T20 total. Classic Pakistan today. Now they would go into the ODI series with rejuvenated confidence.

luke: "SA should be just a little careful in their general approach to cricket. IMO England took as long as it did to playing top level stuff partly due to their light-hearted approach to non-Test forms of cricket. SA have the long form sussed but ODIs and T20s are a mystery to them still. Kirsten was brought in to address that (and possibly their mental strength) and we can say he's so far failed in one of those areas."

Fida Khattak: "There were three "on hat-trick" occasions in one innings. (twice on umar gul's bowling and once on hafeez's). Has that ever happened before in any form of the game?"

Nisar Ahmed: "Remember Faf saying "We would bowl first anyway"; for this?? Cricket is cruel but We Love it."

Shamayel: "Umar Gul gets exactly the same figures again what an upredictable and weird this T20I format is and also how unpredictable Pakistan is."

Cricketlover: "Hafeez is making sure he gets the MoM by keeping Gul out of attack! :P"

What a match this is! There is action off every ball. Killer for my fingers.

ali: "very defensive strategy by Hafeez. Man, give the ball to Gul and Irfan and get over it, you still have Afridi as back up for worst case senario."