A brief history ...
A brief history of series between South Africa and Pakistan
31-Oct-2006
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Wisden report / Cric Info
Only when South Africa returned from international isolation did they start playing against Pakistan. Their first tour - which also took in Zimbabwe - was an unhappy affair. Their form fell away as the tour progressed, as did their discipline and their disposition. They were heavily beaten in two first-class games against Western Province and Natal, lost both legs of the one-day final and then went down to a crushing 324-run defeat in their inaugural Test with South Africa. Things got worse when they moved on to Zimbabwe when their captain, Salim Malik, was implicated in match-fixing allegations. On his return to Pakistan, he was sacked as captain and suspended from the game while the board asked him to answer the charges of bribery.
Tests: South Africa 1 Pakistan 0
ODIs: South Africa 2 Pakistan 0
1997-98 (in Pakistan)
Wisden report / Cric Info
Both teams started with claims to be the leading Test challengers to Australia. It was South Africa who took the honours, winning the Test series in a startling climax at Faisalabad and beating all comers in the floodlit spectacular. Two draws - on a dead pitch at Rawalpindi and a saturated one at Sheikhupura - were forgotten as the decider seemed to be Pakistan's before they crashed to 92 when chasing a target of 146 on the fourth day.
Tests: Pakistan 0 South Africa 1 Drawn 2
ODIs: Pakistan 0 South Africa 1
Wisden report / Cric Info
Both teams started with claims to be the leading Test challengers to Australia. It was South Africa who took the honours, winning the Test series in a startling climax at Faisalabad and beating all comers in the floodlit spectacular. Two draws - on a dead pitch at Rawalpindi and a saturated one at Sheikhupura - were forgotten as the decider seemed to be Pakistan's before they crashed to 92 when chasing a target of 146 on the fourth day.
Tests: Pakistan 0 South Africa 1 Drawn 2
ODIs: Pakistan 0 South Africa 1
1997-98 (in South Africa)
Wisden report / Cric Info
Pakistan had bounced back from defeat earlier in the season so well that this was widely seen as the play-off for second-place bragging rights. But as with Pakistan's previous tour, off-field events overshadowed a good Test series with ended up all square. They arrived without Wasim Akram, dropped officially for fitness reasons, and with Rashid Latif, their fourth captain in ten months, at the helm, an appointment many saw as a bid by the board to regain control in the face of ongoing match-fixing rows. The first Test was delayed for 24 hours after fast bowler Mohammad Akram and off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq claimed they had been mugged outside the team hotel. Later reports said they had been seen at two nightspots and that the injuries had actually been sustained there. The players could not describe their assailants or agree on the time of the attack. Thereafter, Pakistan developed a siege mentality which case came close to paranoia. In the face of a sceptical press, some senior players favoured returning home. After a dull draw, Pakistan bounced back with a 29-run victory at Durban. But Wasim flew in at the request of the board chairman, prompting the resignation of the chief selector, and the side fell apart to allow South Africa to level the series.
Tests: South Africa 1 Pakistan 1 Drawn 1
Wisden report / Cric Info
Pakistan had bounced back from defeat earlier in the season so well that this was widely seen as the play-off for second-place bragging rights. But as with Pakistan's previous tour, off-field events overshadowed a good Test series with ended up all square. They arrived without Wasim Akram, dropped officially for fitness reasons, and with Rashid Latif, their fourth captain in ten months, at the helm, an appointment many saw as a bid by the board to regain control in the face of ongoing match-fixing rows. The first Test was delayed for 24 hours after fast bowler Mohammad Akram and off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq claimed they had been mugged outside the team hotel. Later reports said they had been seen at two nightspots and that the injuries had actually been sustained there. The players could not describe their assailants or agree on the time of the attack. Thereafter, Pakistan developed a siege mentality which case came close to paranoia. In the face of a sceptical press, some senior players favoured returning home. After a dull draw, Pakistan bounced back with a 29-run victory at Durban. But Wasim flew in at the request of the board chairman, prompting the resignation of the chief selector, and the side fell apart to allow South Africa to level the series.
Tests: South Africa 1 Pakistan 1 Drawn 1
2002-03 (in South Africa)
Wisden report / Cric Info
Wisden noted that Pakistan's performances on the South African leg of the tour (they also visited Zimbabwe) "were bad enough to be laughable, yet somehow they produced a single day of brilliance, scoring 335 for six at Port Elizabeth to inflict South Africa's heaviest one-day defeat ... but they still lost that series 4-1, and the two Test matches were so one-sided that in a different sport they would have been stopped early. The bowling was routinely tired, and the batting - barring that one rousing day and two gritty but hopeless efforts by Taufeeq Umar in the Second Test - uncommitted." The tour was awash with stories of infighting and argument. Wasim Akram, inevitably, was involved in most of them, and his decision to return home after the one-dayers was greeted with relief among some of his colleagues. The camp was clearly split. Shoaib Akhtar, one of Wasim's acolytes, expressed his contempt for management and team spirit during the First Test in Durban. Having decided he was carrying a knee injury and unable to play, Shoaib revelled in the attention of Durban's big Asian population, boogieing the night away in carefree fashion at a Bollywood extravaganza. Pakistan lost at Durban by 10 wickets after following-on, and at Cape Town, Herschelle Gibbs and Smith put on 368 for the first wicket in an innings-and-142-run rout.
Tests: South Africa 2 Pakistan 0
ODIs: South Africa 4 Pakistan 1
Wisden report / Cric Info
Wisden noted that Pakistan's performances on the South African leg of the tour (they also visited Zimbabwe) "were bad enough to be laughable, yet somehow they produced a single day of brilliance, scoring 335 for six at Port Elizabeth to inflict South Africa's heaviest one-day defeat ... but they still lost that series 4-1, and the two Test matches were so one-sided that in a different sport they would have been stopped early. The bowling was routinely tired, and the batting - barring that one rousing day and two gritty but hopeless efforts by Taufeeq Umar in the Second Test - uncommitted." The tour was awash with stories of infighting and argument. Wasim Akram, inevitably, was involved in most of them, and his decision to return home after the one-dayers was greeted with relief among some of his colleagues. The camp was clearly split. Shoaib Akhtar, one of Wasim's acolytes, expressed his contempt for management and team spirit during the First Test in Durban. Having decided he was carrying a knee injury and unable to play, Shoaib revelled in the attention of Durban's big Asian population, boogieing the night away in carefree fashion at a Bollywood extravaganza. Pakistan lost at Durban by 10 wickets after following-on, and at Cape Town, Herschelle Gibbs and Smith put on 368 for the first wicket in an innings-and-142-run rout.
Tests: South Africa 2 Pakistan 0
ODIs: South Africa 4 Pakistan 1
2003-04 (in Pakistan)
Wisden report / Cric Info
A bomb blast on the eve of the tour almost led to its cancellation - the UCBSA announced it was off at one point - but the Pakistan board, already financially crippled by cancellations following 9/11, aided by the ICC, persuaded the South Africans to honour commitments. The itinerary was amended, and so heavy was the security that at times armed police outnumbered paying spectators. When the series did start it was immediately embroiled in controversy following a clash between Andrew Hall and Yousuf Youhana in the second ODI - the ICC's handling of the incident poured fuel on the fire. Hall and his captain Graeme Smith, who waded into the clash verbally, were both suspended, which left the South Africans feeling persecuted, and they responded by reporting Shoaib Akhtar for verbally abusing Paul Adams during the First Test. Shoaib was banned too. South Africa struggled without a quality spinner - even though Adams took his Test-best figures and lost convincingly at Lahore, while the second Test finished with the game poised nicely - Pakistan were 242 for 6 chasing 302. Pakistan managed to squander a 2-0 lead to lose the five-match ODI series which preceded the Tests.
Tests: Pakistan 1 South Africa 0 Drawn 1
ODIs: Pakistan 2 South Africa 3
Wisden report / Cric Info
A bomb blast on the eve of the tour almost led to its cancellation - the UCBSA announced it was off at one point - but the Pakistan board, already financially crippled by cancellations following 9/11, aided by the ICC, persuaded the South Africans to honour commitments. The itinerary was amended, and so heavy was the security that at times armed police outnumbered paying spectators. When the series did start it was immediately embroiled in controversy following a clash between Andrew Hall and Yousuf Youhana in the second ODI - the ICC's handling of the incident poured fuel on the fire. Hall and his captain Graeme Smith, who waded into the clash verbally, were both suspended, which left the South Africans feeling persecuted, and they responded by reporting Shoaib Akhtar for verbally abusing Paul Adams during the First Test. Shoaib was banned too. South Africa struggled without a quality spinner - even though Adams took his Test-best figures and lost convincingly at Lahore, while the second Test finished with the game poised nicely - Pakistan were 242 for 6 chasing 302. Pakistan managed to squander a 2-0 lead to lose the five-match ODI series which preceded the Tests.
Tests: Pakistan 1 South Africa 0 Drawn 1
ODIs: Pakistan 2 South Africa 3