South Africa’s young guns are playing with maturity and consistency which their counterparts from Pakistan lack as they drew first blood in their ‘away’ series with a comfortable six-wicket victory in the first Twenty20 match for the Cool & Cool Cup at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday night.
Despite losing the toss on a humid evening, their bowlers fired out Pakistan for 119 with left arm paceman Lonwabo Tsotsobe claiming a career-best three for 16 and off spinner Johan Botha also having a three-wicket haul.
But crucially, when Pakistan’s pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar threatened to derail their run chase by claiming the wickets of Loots Bosman and AB de Villiers within the space of four balls, the in-form Jean-Paul Duminy stepped up in partnership with another left hander Colin Ingram.
Their 66-run fourth wicket partnership in just under 11 overs steadied their innings after Muhammad Hafeez accounted for veteran Graeme Smith to have South Africa struggling at 26 for three.
“It was a clinical performance and I am happy at the way the young guns stepped in after we lost three early wickets especially Ingram and Duminy,” said Botha.
“We played together for the last month and these guys have performed really well for us. That’s what we expect from them and they have done it again tonight,” he said of the younger members of the side who opened the season with a series win over Zimbabwe in Twenty20 and one-day matches.
Another left hander David Miller stepped upto the plate when Duminy departed with 28 runs needed from the last four overs. “You can easily lose it from there. We were all a little bit tense. These guys have done it for the last two years in the Emerging team and as an A team. Now they have stepped up to international level. I feel they can continue that work for us,” said Botha who felt picking wickets at regular intervals was the key to their victory.
“They got off to a bit of a flier but the guys kept taking wickets. That obviously stops the run rate,” he said praising Tsotsobe for bowling brilliantly. “He kept his cool and aggression. He got us two wickets which was key. We’ve always said wickets stop the run rate. He did exactly that for us. All credit to him,” said Botha who took a hammering from his counterpart Shahid Afridi before having the last laugh. “Shahid took me on but I was happy to get the wicket.”
Man of the match Duminy said they were always confident of reaching the modest target on a tricky surface. “It was a bit two-paced with not much turn though we thought there might be lot more turn. It wasn’t the easiest wicket we played on but all credit to the bowlers for getting them under 120 which wasn’t too much of a target for us,” said Duminy who made 41 laced with five boundaries.
“The over (13th) that Colin (Ingram) targeted Afridi was crucial for us. That got us back into the game solidly,” said Duminy.
Botha was pleased with their overall display although there is room for improvement in some areas. “Probably we had a few too many extras. I thought our fielding was pretty solid though it was little bit slippery out there because of the dew. But the guys hung on to the catches. Our batting side has been brilliant for the last three or four weeks. They just continued that tonight. And hopefully we’ll have a good series,” he said.
But he was vary of a Pakistan backlash in the second Twenty20 on Wednesday. “We know Pakistan’s a very good team, a dangerous team. We expect them to come back strongly tomorrow,” he said.
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