HAVING already lost their frontline batsmen Pakistan were on a wing and prayer as their long tail meandered defiantly to escape the inevitable which obviously ended in a guaranteed whitewash. Allowing thus in the end the South African captain Graeme Smith his 50th victory in Tests as a captain and his first clean sweep with it.

The first taste of it had come to South Africa in 1998-99 when the late Hansie Cronje’s men had defeated the West Indies winning all the five matches at home and in 1969-70 a team led by Dr Ali Bacher nailed Bill Lawry’s Australians 4-0 in a four match series.

Stalwarts such as Pollock brothers, Graeme and Peter, were in that team as were Barry Richards, Mike Proctor, Eddie Barlow and wicket-keeper Denis Lindsay.

In fact, it was the last series before South Africa were thrown out of the ICC for refusing to host and accept an England team which had included in their squad a Cape-coloured Basil D’Oliveira who was not acceptable to the then apartheid regime.

Bacher, sitting in the cricket board’s chairman enclosure yesterday and right in line of the wicket, may have been reminiscent of his own team’s performance against the Australians as the Pakistan wickets tumbled at regular intervals after the break.

At lunch he did admit to me that this outfit that South Africa has at the moment certainly looks a world beating team and too sharp for their present day Pakistan team.

He also reminded me of the day when in one of the Tests against Pakistan at Centurion during the late 1990s he brought with him a young man in the press box to introduce him to me and seek advice for travelling to Jamaica and the problems in an island reputed for its day-to-day violence in Old Kingston.

The youngster was none else than Ernie Els the golfer who later become the world champion winning everything on offer on this planet. With my lack of knowledge of golf I had never heard about him before he met me. I only realised much later what a talent that he turned out to be

I am not writing this to digress from what I am supposed to write, the series, of course, has offered little consolation and more pain during the last four weeks watching Misbah-ul-Haq’s men going through the same exercise of protecting themselves and their wicket with their shaken pride.

Only once Pakistani faces had lit up when during the second Test at Cape Town Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq scored a hundred each and the off-spinner Saeed Ajmal nearly notched up a much-needed win.

The first Test at Johannesburg was over in three and a half days, the second on the fourth evening and this one had no other route but a familiar one in the series as the clock ticked and resistance softened. If not for a stubborn and enterprising 69-run partnership for the seventh wicket between the clueless Sarfraz Ahmed as far as his batting in the series is concerned and Saeed Ajmal the game would have been over a lot earlier than was expected.

Now it has been left for those who will be playing in the limited-overs matches to salvage some sanity and pride for the touring Pakistanis.

South Africa after this series will have a long rest before they play their next Test series and that too against Pakistan in the United Arable Emirates during October and November next.

Let us face the fact that this team of ours was not up to the mark. Call it what you may we certainly were not good enough nor were some of the umpiring decisions especially of the trigger-happy Australian umpire Steve Davis whose countless decisions were overturned and made one wonder if he would remain on the scene even after the way he has performed in this particular series.

That should not be taken as an excuse. But things like that do influence mindset of the team.

Moreover, it indeed is waste of time to blame coaches and management. After playing so much cricket it is important for those who play at international level to prove that they are good enough to be picked time and again despite being disappointing on a regular basis.