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South Africa vs Pakistan 2013: Visitors face another stiff challenge against formidable hosts

After losing to South Africa in the limited-overs series in the UAE, Pakistan head to the rainbow nation for another short series. Abhijit Banare looks at what’s in store for Pakistan who play South Africa in the third series between the two sides this year.

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South Africa vs Pakistan 2013: Visitors face another stiff challenge against formidable hosts

Pakistan lost the five-match ODI series and the two-match T20I series against South Africa in UAE © AFP

After losing to South Africa in the limited-overs series in the UAE, Pakistan head to the rainbow nation for another short series. Abhijit Banare looks at what’s in store for Pakistan who play South Africa in the third series between the two sides this year.

Among the most dreadful tasks in cricket these days includes being a Pakistan cricket fan. The defeats, however unexpected, can still inflict the same disappointment and one can’t enjoy the anticipation of a winning moment even if 17 runs are required with six wickets in hand and 55 deliveries at the disposal. Whereas, it continues to be an adventurous one for a South African cricket fan with an assurance that there is a winning moment on offer at any stage of the game. These two mindsets perhaps reflect even in the minds of the players who have now faced each other on more occasions than MS Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara in the countless One-Day Internationals (ODIs) they have played. The two teams have already played 11 ODIs and three T20Is this year, which will add up to 14 and five by the end of the year!
 
As Pakistan once again pack their bags to fly to the rainbow nation, there lingers another sinking feeling of a disappointing result. If the lack of quality batting is kept aside, the psychological scar of losing to the same opposition is enough to pull them down. The tougher aspect is, if they lose once again, perhaps the acceptability of a loss will settle down. There is a little lesson to learn from their opponents here. South Africa’s batting that slipped twice in the first two ODI matches quickly went into the introspection zone and pushed itself further up to avoid settling for below-par performances even if the eventual result was a win. Moreover, Pakistan need to prepare their young team with more A tours to other countries and allow them to mature before searching for fruitful results against better-ranked teams.
 
With the way Pakistan have presented themselves at UAE, the full force of the South African bowling will be salivating about the prospect of running through their batting. Pakistan have time and again unsuccessfully gone back to their senior set of players to stem the poor form. As a result, they are compelled to blood more and more youngsters to shape up for the national team even though if it means losing. However, as discussed in this piece, they have resources to fill the need for new bowlers, whereas the batting has turned into a cyclical disappointment.
 
Pakistan will be the least favoured to make an impact in this tournament, yet the heap of criticism will continue to rise unjustifiably as they haven’t received enough time and space to rise from the poor form. One can just hope that post the series, they enter the same introspection zone and regain the same confidence. Until then criticising Pakistan’s performance will continue to be a futile exercise.

Things to look forward for
 
Another tough tour just adds to the ‘lesson learnt’ category for Pakistan. The visitors will have some new faces in the bowling with Anwar Ali and Bilawal Bhatti. The former is another swing bowler while Bhatti enjoys a good record with his all-round skills. Being a medium pace bowler, perhaps, he could be a fitting solution to an Abdul Razzaq-like player in the middle-order. Meanwhile for South Africa, it’s a good opportunity to get in the groove for an exciting encounter against a formidable Indian side. Not to forget the return of Jacques Kallis. He has hardly featured in the limited overs matches for his side and will be keen to regain his rhythm ahead of the India series.
 
At the end of the day, the overexposure of matches between the two teams can improve the bond between the administrations of the two countries. And according to recent developments, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is set to groom a few youngsters by sending them to South Africa for domestic matches. That in the end gives out a positive message of an improvement of cricket in Pakistan at the lower levels.

(Abhijit Banare is a reporter at CricketCountry. He is an avid quizzer and loves to analyse and dig out interesting facts which allows him to learn something new every day. Apart from cricket he also likes to keep a sharp eye on Indian politics, and can be followed on Twitter and blog)

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