AB de Villiers’ innings made the difference in 5th ODI, admits Misbah-ul-Haq

Pakistan wasted a massive opportunity of beating South Africa in South Africa. The series was 2-2, when both sides met in the final encounter on Sunday.

Batting first, the Cornered Tigers could only pile up 205 runs. Kamran Akmal laid a nice foundation by adding 48 runs, but the rest of the batting line-up completely failed to do anything special.

In reply, it was never difficult for the home side. Skipper, AB de Villiers played a captain’s knock and scored crucial 95 runs. He remained unbeaten until the end, and guided the side to an easy 6-wicket victory.

As a result, the Proteas secured the series 3-2. De Villiers was South Africa’s most successful batsman in the series, as he collected 367 runs at 91.75, scooping the ‘Player of the Series’ award.

Misbah-u-Haq was not reluctant to admit that De Villiers made the big difference, as he stayed at the crease until the end. He explained after the game at Willowmoore Park:

"It was a 250 pitch and the way we started it was gettable. The team have got some confidence from the Twenty20 series and the one-day series. We have shown we can perform in these conditions against this quality bowling attack."

Winning captain, De Villiers, on the other hand, described, "The bowling unit got better and better as the series went on. We got some partnerships together with bat and ball and we stuck together as a team."

It was indeed a hard tour for the Men in Green. They were thrashed 3-0 in the Test series. A little improvement was seen in the Twenty20 battle, when Pakistan won the game comprehensively under the captaincy of Mohammad Hafeez.

But the side failed continue the rhythm, and did not perform consistently in the ODIs. The batting department really dented Pakistan’s chances, as most of the senior batsmen failed to perform on constant basis.

Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed and Younis Khan were short of runs and therefore, the crew stayed under pressure throughout the tour. Now, Pakistan may make some serious changes in the line-up for the upcoming Champion Trophy in England.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=39323

Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Mar 25 2013. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry