October 19, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 6, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 18: Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik said early fall of top four wickets led to their defeat in the first One-day International against South Africa at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday.

“Unfortunately we lost four quick wickets and could not manage to recover due to some good bowling by Makhaya Ntini,” the skipper told reporters after the match.

He said another factor was chasing a big total (294) which became difficult as the innings could not be stabilised due to early loss of four batsmen, adding even some good performance by Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal could not do the required work.

“It is disappointing to lose the first match of the series; I was not expecting that result and I would not blame my batsmen or bowlers for the defeat; they all tried their best but unfortunately we could not win,” he expressed.

The captain defended the performance of the batsmen, not accepting the failures of the middle order and openers.

“I do not agree to it; we all did well and our bowling was very much good,” the captain insisted when asked whether he felt the absence of Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar.

About vice-captain Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik said the opener was dropped for the first ODI because they (team management) wanted to have six bowlers in the team. “He is a good batsman but we wanted to play the match with six bowlers and only 11 best players get the chance to be there.”

Meanwhile, South African captain Graeme Smith said winning the first ODI was a good beginning, emphasising key to success was scoring a big total.

“It’s a good start. We posted a good total and by that way we controlled the match,” Smith told reporters after the Proteas beat Pakistan. “I am happy the way we played, controlled the game and the way we won.”

Smith said centuries by Herschelle Gibbs and A.B. de Villiers were superb, adding good partnerships helped them dominate in the match.

“We had some anxious moments in the end when Shahid Afridi demonstrated strokeplay but we were waiting for a good ball to end the resistance and we did it exactly according to our plan,” he said.

Praising Makhaya Ntini, Smith said the veteran paceman restricted the opponents from their possible effort for run chase.

In the meantime, centurion de Villiers said he was delighted to score a hundred and looked forward to help his team in the coming matches.

“It was not an easy wicket to bat on and my planning was to stay as long as I can. And I am happy that I managed to do so and that we won the match,” he said. —APP