October 22, 2007	Monday	Shawwal 9, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 21: Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik was fined 50 per cent of his match fee while his team was penalized 15 per cent for slow over-rate in the second One-day International against South Africa which they won by 25 runs to level the five-match series (1-1) at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday.

Match referee Alan Hurst, while imposing the fine said the Pakistan were three overs short after deducting the time conceded in changing the ball and moving the side screen.The South Africans were also slow in completing their quota of overs by 15 minutes. But Pakistan had to complete the quota of the overs at 6.48pm after taking the field at 3.18pm. But they finished the game 39 minutes late.

Amazingly, South Africans were bowling with pace quartet of Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Charl Langeveldt and Jacques Kallis and just one spinner in Johan Botha. But Pakistan in their ranks had three medium-pacers in Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar and Umar Gul and two spinners Shahid Afridi and Abdul Rehman, but even they failed to maintain the over-rate.

Shoaib, who remained off-the field most of the South African innings, was surprisingly replaced by Younis Khan to lead the team. Younis had announced that he would not like to be captain or vice- captain of the national side after rejecting the captaincy offered to him by the PCB following the World Cup 2007 disaster.