October 09, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 26, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 8: A crucial run out of AB de Villiers in the final over of the first day brightened Pakistan’s chances of restricting South Africa to round about 300 in the first innings of the second Test at the Gaddafi Stadium on Monday.

South Africans, thriving on three fine partnerships of over 50 runs each, were fairly well-placed at 259-5 when the final over of the day commenced with De Villiers batting on 45 and Mark Boucher on 9.

It was at that stage when Asif, bowling with the new ball, tried to stop a powerful bowler’s back drive from Boucher that deflected onto the non-striker’s stumps and De Villiers was stranded well outside his crease.

The day’s final score of 259-6 slightly titled the balance in the home side’s favour on a topsy-turvy day with both the teams sharing the honours.

With new ball in operation, the Pakistani bowlers should mop up the tail fairly quickly on Tuesday with only Boucher being the recognised batsman left in the tourists’ ranks. Andre Nel, yet to face a ball, was unbeaten at the other end at the stumps.

Earlier, South African skipper Graeme Smith decided to bat first on a pitch where the fast bowlers enjoyed a good bounce throughout the day, specially in the first session of play.

It appears that Smith took the decision only to avoid batting in the fourth innings as the pitch is likely to break by the fourth and the fifth day.

South Africans, 1-0 ahead in the two match series, suffered two big blows quickly with the total just 47. First to depart was opener Herschelle Gibbs who tried to play away from his body and offered a dolly catch to Misbah-ul-Haq at gully off Umar Gul with the score at 24. Skipper Smith added 23 with new man Amla before Asif struck another blow, deceiving the bearded player with a sharp in-swinger in the 17th over.

The Pakistani bowlers were then kept at bay by a stoic partnership between Smith and in-form Kallis which retrieved the position to some extent for the South Africans. Playing every ball on merit, the two took the tourists safely to lunch at 70-2 with Smith batting at 31 and Kallis on 13.

After the interval, Smith and Kallis took the total to 100-2 when Kaneria, bowling superbly in the session, unleashed one of his fastish leg-spinners to left-handed Smith who failed to cover up the stumps in time and was bowled. He scored a 90-ball 46 with four boundaries during a stay of 153 minutes.

Vice captain Prince then joined Kallis who looked set for yet another big score after his twin tons at Karachi. Both played with complete authority and Kallis lifted leg-spinner Abdul Rehman over long off for a six to complete his 50. The big all-rounder was finally trapped leg before by Kaneria for 59 at the stroke of tea with the total at 160-4. Kallis and Prince plundered 60 runs in 85 minutes between them.

In the final session, left-handed Ashwell Prince, calmly went about consolidating his side in a fifth-wicket stand of 83 with De Villiers to frustrate the Pakistanis.

They took the score to 243 when leg-spinner Abdul Rehman, under-utilised by captain Shoaib Malik on this first day, deceived Prince with a well-flighted delivery which came in sharply to beat the off-balanced player. Prince scored his sixth Test half-century with five boundaries off 132 balls. Incidently, that was the first over bowled under the floodlights, which were switched on at 4.30pm due to fading sunlight.

Kaneria, who bowled a marathon spell of 27 overs finished the day with two for 73 and was the pick of the bowlers.

While the visitors retained the winning combination of Karachi Test, Pakistan axed opener Mohammad Hafeez and middle-order batsman Faisal Iqbal to include Inzamam-ul-Haq, playing his last Test match, and seasoned campaigner Mohammad Yousuf.

Scoreboard

SOUTH AFRICA:

H.H. Gibbs c Misbah b Umar Gul 13

G.C. Smith b Kaneria 46

H.M. Amla b Asif 10

J.H. Kallis lbw b Kaneria 59

A.G. Prince lbw b Rehman 63

A.B. de Villiers run out 45

M.V. Boucher not out 9

A. Nel not out 0

EXTRAS (W-7, NB-2, PEN-5) 14

TOTAL (for six wkts, 83 overs) 259

FALL OF WKTS: 1-24, 2-47, 3-100, 4-160, 5-243, 6-259.

TO BAT: P.L. Harris, D.W. Steyn, M. Ntini.

BOWLING: Mohammad Asif 23-5-55-1; Umar Gul 18-1-78-1(6nb, 2w); Danish Kaneria 27-4-73-2; Abdul Rehman 10-3-28-1; Shoaib Malik 5-0-20-0 (1nb).

PAKISTAN: Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Asif.

UMPIRES: M.R. Benson (England) and S.J.A. Taufel (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: Nadeem Ghauri (Pakistan).

MATCH REFEREE: A.G. Hurst (Australia).