Pakistan end Day 3 on 153/3, needing 228 to win the 3rd Test against South Africa

[castortroy]

These are probably the hardest pitches to bat on in world cricket

England can also be tough in overcast conditions

 

[MMHS]

When I see Asad now a days, It just disappoints me that what he could have become and what he has achieved.

This time, I am sure you won't be upset with the word "Batting culture". Umar Akmal was much better than Asad at Asad's best, trust me.

 

[Green Patriot]

If Asad throws it away now....

 

[ExpressPacer]

Need to be careful against Philander. The lack of pace is dangerous.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

Keep it up lads. Wat we need is a big partnetship frm these 2. To take us as close to the target

 

[ExpressPacer]

Shafiq should get a bonus whenever he bats at a SR of above 60. Perhaps that will motivate him to bat like this more often.

He almost always plays well when he attacks. Could have been a quality ODI player as well.

Pakistan may become a superpower before the PCB does something innovative like that.

 

[Sunny_majoka]

Won't be easy with our batting line up.

we have shaan too

 

[Titan24]

What this series should teach pakistan is that for gods sake stop playing in UAE.

Where to play then? England can be a good option, there was even negotiations at one point. But I am hopeful we will get cricket back in next couple of years, till then Eng looks like a decent venue considering everything.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

Another 120 plus runs frm these 2 minimum needed..

 

[Mamoon]

Shafiq’s SR in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia must be around 60.

 

[MMHS]

PAK has the right idea actually - if they are to chase, must have to take out 2nd ball from equation. 60-70 runs is fine with wickets at hand, but it's impossible to chase 380 from 220-3 at the start of 2nd ball.

 

[Markhor]

It's UAE conditions that further the myth that our batsmen can't bat at a higher gear.

Put them on proper pitches and you see the RR improve significantly.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

First target for these 2 to get through to close. Then grind out morning session.. probably 80-90 runs with no loss and take it frm there. Session by session

 

[Hasan123]

Shafiq has done enough to be retained for the next series but he must keep batting with this intent.

 

[JibranAnsari]

Where to play then? England can be a good option, there was even negotiations at one point. But I am hopeful we will get cricket back in next couple of years, till then Eng looks like a decent venue considering everything.

Srilanka have great test pitches and it will be less costly there.

 

[AFM]

Steyn back

 

[Titan24]

This time, I am sure you won't be upset with the word "Batting culture". Umar Akmal was much better than Asad at Asad's best, trust me.

I know, I have mentioned him in one of the posts on this thread. Pakistani fans and cricket fans as a whole deserved to see a talent like Umar Akmal (In fit, well groomed form)

 

[Hasan123]

Hopefully these 2 can get us to 200 at least.

 

[Green Patriot]

How many overs left guys?

 

[Titan24]

Srilanka have great test pitches and it will be less costly there.

Agreed. Can definitely be a decent option for year or two until we completely move cricket back to Pak.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Srilanka have great test pitches and it will be less costly there.

Yasir will remain effective as well there.

 

[Sirris]

Steyn in the attack, Babar licking his lips...

 

[Markhor]

PAK team is striving for a home wicket like this - hard, bouncy but not much side wise movement so that batsmen can hit through the line. Instead of Oval, J'burg, Gabba .... we have got Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah .... so Zaheer Abbases are turning to Azhar Ali. Next SRL-PAK series should be shifted to Gale, Colombo & Palekelle instead of those .....

Not a coincidence that the batting greats over the years have grown up on excellent cricket wickets - Oval, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Barbados etc.

However asking too much from PCB farmers to produce wickets even half as good as them back home.

 

[Sunny_majoka]

Shafiq should get a bonus whenever he bats at a SR of above 60. Perhaps that will motivate him to bat like this more often.

He almost always plays well when he attacks. Could have been a quality ODI player as well.

he is a nice to watch when he is on song but he just can't handle pressure
these kind of situations give him free hand

 

[JibranAnsari]

Steyn on a different level today

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

We have no hope frm safi. These 2 are going to have to do majority of the scoring

 

[Hasan123]

Good shot by Shafiq. He has played well.

 

[JibranAnsari]

Two overs more i think.

 

[Ozymandiasza]

Steyn on a different level today

He usually dials it to 11 at the end of the day.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

Imagine pak had to chase 250 on here... even 300 would have been possible.. just the wayward bowling messed it up

 

[MMHS]

Any where on planet earth is better than UAE. The amount of money PCB has wasted arranging cricket in UAE (& screwing BCCI), had they spent half of that even in Canada, by now we would have seen a totally different generation of PAK cricketers instead of MaHa, Malik, Azhar, Sarfraz ......

 

[Stalin]

Last over of the day

 

[Hasan123]

Just see it off until close.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

Saf won't lose sleep over these 2 as they knw pak have collapsed to many Times

 

[Rana]

How can umpires send that to the third umpire?

 

[JibranAnsari]

These umpires are useless

 

[Rayyman]

Rabada is extremely overrated.

 

[MMHS]

Imagine pak had to chase 250 on here... even 300 would have been possible.. just the wayward bowling messed it up

Chasing 381 is different issue, but 300 was always on card, I actually wrote that yesterday. J'burg is best for batting on Day 3. Tomorrow, by lunch cracks will open up and SAF will have their 2nd ball, so PAK needs to reach as close as 300 by lunch tomorrow.

 

[PakPremi]

Shafiq should get a bonus whenever he bats at a SR of above 60. Perhaps that will motivate him to bat like this more often.

He almost always plays well when he attacks. Could have been a quality ODI player as well.

At first I use to disagree with Yusuf playing him in ODIs but he is one of our better stroke player. Just cannot handle pressure like many.

 

[Hasan123]

Will be interesting to see how the wicket plays tomorrow

 

[Hasan123]

Nice defence.

 

[MMHS]

Rabada is extremely overrated.

Won't use the word over rated, but SAF's pacers are lucky to play half of their career on such wickets.

 

[Hasan123]

Surely this is the last over of the day.

 

[Pete Rose]

Shafiq’s SR in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia must be around 60.

It is. While he definitely has frailties under adversity, I don’t he was well served by playing at 6 down . He doesn’t have Misbah’s grinding abilities or younis’ profienciency against spin. Maybe Azhar has Misbah’s grid. Shafiq is a stroke maker and of course he is not mentally strong enough to fix his game now that he is a senior player.

 

[saeed5646]

one minute and umpire have given one more to SA

i had a bad feeling

 

[PakPremi]

If only Pak scored at least 250 in the first inning, SA would have been under more pressure batting second time and would not have scored this much. Alas there is no chance for Pak to win this now.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

Last over

 

[Hasan123]

5 balls to survive.

 

[Sunny_majoka]

only positive from this series is babar,
this has boosted lot of confidence of him.

 

[Stalin]

Sensing a wicket here

 

[Hasan123]

4 balls to survive now.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

Steyn with his tail up

 

[Mamoon]

Mickey smiling after a week.

 

[Hasan123]

Good defence.

 

[MMHS]

At first I use to disagree with Yusuf playing him in ODIs but he is one of our better stroke player. Just cannot handle pressure like many.

NO.

This is I wrote probably 5 years back some where. ODI is a defensive game, where the game is built on rotation, being busy and always look for reducing dots - be it 170 or 450 condition. Asad is a boundary hitter - his only utility could have been ODI opener, if he had to play ODI. Sadly, PAK tank played him at 4-5 when you need to rotate from ball one and batted YK at 3 - this is a perfect example of opposite polar tactics.

 

[saeed5646]

steyn is super fit last over and he is increasing the speed

 

[Hasan123]

Nice shot.

 

[Faisalabadimunda]

Survived

 

[Markhor]

Too many runs required and too little batting strength to get there.

This seems like token resistance but I'll take what I can get from this horror tour.

 

[Hasan123]

Close of play. Well played. Let's see if we can produce a miracle tomorrow.

 

[JibranAnsari]

228 to win 7 wickets in hand.

 

[saeed5646]

ya ALLAH shukar

 

[Sunny_majoka]

at least they did not lost in the third day

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Wish there were more overs as Pak looked good.

 

[Plumb]

Predictied it at the start if series that shafiq ll score something big in last innings in losing cause.. that’s what we ll remember and that’s what he is good at

 

[a_tahir]

Predictied it at the start if series that shafiq ll score something big in last innings in losing cause.. that’s what we ll remember and that’s what he is good at

Pakistan hasn't lost yet. Unlikely to win but haven't lost yet

 

[Plumb]

Pakistan hasn't lost yet. Unlikely to win but haven't lost yet

Point wasn’t about pak losing its about players like shafiq n azhar trolling us just like mallik n hafeez

 

[Savak]

Any where on planet earth is better than UAE. The amount of money PCB has wasted arranging cricket in UAE (& screwing BCCI), had they spent half of that even in Canada, by now we would have seen a totally different generation of PAK cricketers instead of MaHa, Malik, Azhar, Sarfraz ......

Why Canada where the temperature is freezing cold for 6-7 months in the year? Also the last time I saw a live match in Canada, the wickets were terrible

 

[PakPremi]

Predictied it at the start if series that shafiq ll score something big in last innings in losing cause.. that’s what we ll remember and that’s what he is good at

He did score 88 last match but cannot forgive him for the way he got out in first inning. No focus. And overall in series not taken responsibility as a senior.

 

[Plumb]

He did score 88 last match but cannot forgive him for the way he got out in first inning. No focus. And overall in series not taken responsibility as a senior.

Yes awesome raised his bat like he did something unbelievable scoring a useless 80

 

[yasir]

This series boils down to 10-15k difference of pace between our and their bowlers. Pace of the pace Bowlers was most disappointing thing for me, that really hurt us. Those effort deliveries took key wickets for SA where as we were trundling

 

[yasir]

Their pacers value test cricket a lot, Steyn At 35 steaming in every time, bowling 145+ to unsettle our batters.

Our pacers, "Abhi PSL bhiee Khalni hai, wasay join saw jaheet jana hai"

 

[Minnowbasher]

Highly unlikely we will win this match but I hope we atleast give some fight considering how one sided this series has been so far.

 

[MMHS]

Why Canada where the temperature is freezing cold for 6-7 months in the year? Also the last time I saw a live match in Canada, the wickets were terrible

Between June to SEP, Canada, particularly GTA is the best place to play cricket on planet earth. Temperature between 12 to 35C, playing day light from 8AM to 8PM, hardly any rain or gloomy sky, humidity between 30-50, nice Atlantic breeze from the lakes and a fantastic passionate, wealthy (& educated) south Asian fan base.

Wicket is the factor of what curators are capable of. Canadian soil is one of the best in world for cricket wicket, with fine, black clay on rock hard Canadian crust; best quality grass can be grown here, and the soil retains moisture. 23 years back, Atkinson prepared wickets for Shara Cup and those were the best ODI wickets of 90s - every game with a range of score around 250 went to last over and games own equally by teams batting 1st or 2nd. And, most successful batsmen were Saeed, Tendulkar, Malik, Ganguly, Sohail, Azhar ...... genuine proper stroke makers.

 

[MenInG]

CSA Media Release : STEYN’S EARLY STRIKES PUT HIM INTO THE ALL-TIME TOP 10

Sunday, 13 January 2019

DALE STEYN took the first two second innings wickets to move into the top 10 on the all-time wicket-takers list as the Standard Bank Proteas set about clinching the final Test of the Castle Lager Series at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on Sunday.

He now has 433 wickets which puts him in joint eighth place with Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath, who has just retired, and England’s Stuart Broad.

Pakistan had been set a tough victory target of 381 and two wickets from Steyn and one from the series leading wicket-taker, Duanne Olivier, left the visitors on 153/3 at stumps, needing a further 228 for victory.

Remarkably, in comparison with what has happened earlier in this match and previously in the series, only 8 wickets fell on day three as Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock made their overnight partnership for the sixth wicket worth 102 before the former departed (71 off 144 balls, 14 fours). De Kock then found useful partners in Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada as he went on to his fourth Test match century that also equalled his career best (129 off 138 balls, 18 fours and a six).

It was his first century against Pakistan and also his first on his initial home ground and made sure that he will finish the series as South Africa’s leading runs scorer.

Amla has also had a good outing with more than 100 runs in the match and, if one looks beyond the immediate outcome of the Test series, it is good news for South Africa’s World Cup prospects as, barring the unexpected, Amla and De Kock will lead off the Proteas batting line-up as they attempt to bring home the 50 overs premier trophy.

If the day belonged to De Kock, who also had stands of 28 with Philander and 79 with Rabada, there was also solace for Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed who established a national record by completing 10 dismissals behind the stumps in the match.

When Pakistan batted a second time they displayed better application than they have done through the series but again lost wickets of batsmen who were well set. De Kock was involved in all three wickets to fall to complete a memorable day.

One of the remaining batsmen will clearly have to score the century that has eluded them in the series to date if Pakistan are to win the match.

 

[javid]

UAE pitches are destroying Pakistan cricket....both batsman as well as bowlers are suffering bcz of these low slow pitches... PCB should change it's home series or should do something with these pitches..such as changing the soil....

 

[Buffet]

How costly the last 5 wickets from SA will prove here?

SA was 93/5, but ended with 300+ to take lead to 380.

Pakistan allowed the last 5 wickets to add 200+ here.

Chasing 220 vs 380 is a huge difference.


Pakistani pacers missed a trick here. Batting is much easier on 3rd day. If Pakistan had picked up the last 5 cheaply then they would have batted in best conditions and chasing 220 was not out of question specially in this venue. Game may have even finished today with Pakistan winning it.

What do you think?

 

[Napa]

Between June to SEP, Canada, particularly GTA is the best place to play cricket on planet earth. Temperature between 12 to 35C, playing day light from 8AM to 8PM, hardly any rain or gloomy sky, humidity between 30-50, nice Atlantic breeze from the lakes and a fantastic passionate, wealthy (& educated) south Asian fan base.

Wicket is the factor of what curators are capable of. Canadian soil is one of the best in world for cricket wicket, with fine, black clay on rock hard Canadian crust; best quality grass can be grown here, and the soil retains moisture. 23 years back, Atkinson prepared wickets for Shara Cup and those were the best ODI wickets of 90s - every game with a range of score around 250 went to last over and games own equally by teams batting 1st or 2nd. And, most successful batsmen were Saeed, Tendulkar, Malik, Ganguly, Sohail, Azhar ...... genuine proper stroke makers.

The reason why Pakistan can't play Test cricket in Canada is the time zone issue. The main audience for Test cricket is the television audience, and you cannot have the Pakistani team playing when people are sleeping at night in Pakistan.

 

[Saurav]

Tough but doable

 

[MMHS]

The reason why Pakistan can't play Test cricket in Canada is the time zone issue. The main audience for Test cricket is the television audience, and you cannot have the Pakistani team playing when people are sleeping at night in Pakistan.

Can be an issue, but it's a great opportunity for ODI & T20 in that regard. However, there are more Test cricket lover in UK, Canada & Australia than probably PAK itself - these people can watch.