Steyn takes flight, and a battle of Goliaths

In the ninth over, at 30 for 0, Pakistan already had what was by far their biggest and longest opening stand of the tournament. It was still a slow start, but Ahmed Shehzad was beginning to look comfortable, having pulled and driven Kyle Abbott to the boundary in the space of six balls. An opening partnership can't flourish too long with Dale Steyn in the opposition though. Shehzad mistimed a flick and Steyn ran to his right from mid-on, while looking over his shoulder, and ended his sprint with a spectacular dive. He came up with the ball clutched in his fingertips, but was floored again by his team-mates piling on top of him in celebration.

South Africa had the scoring rate under control with Pakistan 35 for 1 in 10 overs. AB de Villiers tried to slow things down further, bringing legspinner Imran Tahir on at one end, and his own gentle half-trackers at the other. The experiment was quickly aborted though, after one of his deliveries barely reached half-way up the pitch and sat up for Younis Khan to flat-bat down the ground. Two balls later, de Villiers sent one down that was just as short and even loopier. Sarfraz Ahmed was waiting, then wound up and eventually swatted it to long leg for four more. To de Villiers' credit, he was not put off and returned an hour later to take Younis' wicket.

The second 10 overs, runs wise, did not go as well for South Africa. Pakistan added 72 more. Sarfraz was playing his first game of the tournament, brought in to shake up a flagging batting line-up and he made quite the statement. He greeted JP Duminy with two confident pulls - both times, he took a few steps down the track before unleashing - and both times the man at deep midwicket was interested for an instant before watching the ball sail over his head. Sarfraz could not complete a hat-trick, but he did get a third six later in the over, a carbon copy of the first two: two steps down, almighty swing, midwicket left ball-watching.

How often do you see Morne Morkel run up to a batsman in his follow-through, only to be dwarfed? Such was the case after a couple of frustrating rain breaks, as Mohammad Irfan faced up to him in what was the final over of Pakistan's innings. First up, Morkel got one to climb quickly on the seven-footer, forcing him to duck hurriedly to avoid one that went buzzing past his ears. Irfan was not pleased, and it was made clear the following ball when he backed away and slashed angrily at a length ball. Next up was a yorker, which Irfan French-cut for one. Sadly, that was the end of that intriguing mini-battle, with Pakistan all out the following delivery.

Two overs into the chase, Faf du Plessis committed a costly error - he took out the ICC's flashing Zing wickets in his rush to make his ground ahead of Misbah-ul-Haq's throw from short mid-off. He'd set off for the run and had Misbah hit at the non-striker's end, it looked like he would have been out. That probably would not have been as costly a loss for South Africa, though, as it could have been for the ICC if the stumps were damaged, given a kit of nine stumps and 14 bails sets them back by roughly $40,000.

The pacy Wahab Riaz has been one to watch this World Cup, and today he was helped along with a first-ball wicket courtesy a spectacular take from Sarfraz behind the stumps. As a wicketkeeper Sarfraz often comes across as a bit heavy-footed, safe more than athletic, but today he showed he can put in the sharp dive when needed, throwing himself low to his right to hang on to a chance, one-handed, from the in-form Hashim Amla. It was Sarfraz's third catch of the night, and not his last - having taken over keeping duties from part-timer Umar Akmal, who had his fair share of slip ups with the gloves in Pakistan's first four games, Sarfraz finished with six catches, equalling the world record for ODIs.