A tale of two tail-enders: Pakistan's debutants star in 23-run win

Man-of-the-match Anwar Ali took two crucial wickets after notching the highest score from Pakistan earlier.

CAPE TOWN: Face-saving performances by two debutants saw Pakistan claim a historic 23-run victory in Cape Town on Sunday after dismissing a star-studded South African lineup out for just 195 runs in 48.1 overs, ESPNCricinfo reported.

Debutants Anwar Ali and Bilawal Bhatti shone with impressive performances with both bat and ball.

Anwar claimed the two crucial wickets of Jacques Kallis and David Miller after making the top individual score from Pakistan's side (43), and was awarded Man-of-the-match for his performance.

The short but skiddy and pacy Bilawal also snatched three wickets to follow up his 25-ball 39 runs, that gave Pakistan a defendable total.

South Africa now trail the three-match series by 0-1.

Chasing the relatively small target of 219, the Proteas suffered two early setbacks inside four overs as Hashim Amla got bowled off Junaid Khan and Graeme Smith fell prey to a a very tight stumping call off the bowling of Mohammad Hafeez.

In the 13th over, Bilawal Bhatti bowled Quinton de Kock for 19 runs. Afridi bowled AB de Villiers for a score of 10 soon afterwards.

With the sturdy Jacques Kallis on the crease, though, South Africa looked set to achieve the target until one of Anwar Ali's deliveries sneaked under his bat and onto the stumps.

Earlier, the visitors put up another lacklustre performance which was salvaged largely due to efforts from the tail-enders.

An out of sorts lineup ended up with 131 for seven in 36 overs before a 74-run partnership between debutants Bilawal Bhatti (39) and Anwar Ali (43) rescued them at 131 for seven to take them to 218 in 12 overs.

After Pakistan had won the toss and opted to bat first, openers Ahmed Shehzad and Nasir Jamshed managed to hold the first wicket partnership for 49 slow runs.

But disciplined bowling from the South African bowlers ensured that wickets fell at regular intervals after the first partnership.

Vice captain Mohammad Hafeez, who is now known for being rather partial to Dale Steyn, gifted the paceman his wicket once again.

Jamshed was dismissed for 24, Shehzad for 35 and Hafeez for only five.

Neither captain Misbahul Haq nor Umar Akmal could contribute significantly, and were dismissed with scores of 13 and zero respectively. Promising youngster Sohaib Maqsood played a long, but slow innings on his way to 22 while Shahid Afridi lived briefly for his cameo of 26 runs.

But if anyone from the Pakistani unit showed the intent and power of genuine batters, it was ironically the series debutants Anwar Ali and Bilawal Bhatti.

Bhatti, who made his debut in the Twenty20 series that ended on Friday, smashed 39 from 25 balls with the help of two sixes, one against Kallis and another against Morkel.

Anwar Ali stayed unbeaten at 43 from 55 balls with the help of six fours.

The duo easily looked more fearless than any of the other batsmen in the Pakistan lineup.

Earlier, South Africa welcomed return of veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis for his first one-day international since February 2012, while Test captain Graeme Smith was also back in the side after missing the last three matches of the recent series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates because of post-concussion syndrome.

Misbahul Haq, who was not part of the Twenty20 squad, returned to captain Pakistan.

South Africa had beaten Pakistan 4-1 in a one-day series in the United Arab Emirates that concluded earlier in November.

Teams

Pakistan: Misbahul Haq (captain), Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Akmal (wkt), Shahid Afridi, Bilawal Bhatti, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Anwar Ali.

South Africa: AB de Villiers, (captain), Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Jacques Kallis, JP Duminy, David Miller, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir.

Umpires: Johan Cloete (RSA), Chris Gaffaney (NZL)

TV umpire: Bruce Oxenford (AUS)

Match referee: Chris Broad (Z)