South Africa v Pakistan - Tour Match

South African Invitation XI v Pakistanis
St George's Park, Port Elizabeth
4 Day Game
Umpires: RGA Ashman & DV Collins
Toss: Pakistan

SAI XI: *A Melville, G Kirsten, A Bacher, AW Nourse, BL Irvine, JH Sinclair, +HB Cameron, SJ Snooke, JM Blanckenberg, AMB Rowan, CR Matthews.
Pakistanis: Mohsin Khan, Mudassar Nazar, Majid Khan, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal, *Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Intikhab Alam, +Wasim Bari, Waqar Younis.

A slow, low pitch at St George's Park made strokeplay difficult for both teams in Pakistan's tour opener, but Imran Khan would have been largely satisfied with his side's performance ahead of the first Test in Bloemfontein. The Pakistanis took the best part of five sessions in crawling their way to a first innings total of 333, with Majid's bright 51 the best of three fifties posted by the tourists' top six, and Athol Rowan did his chances of a Test call-up no harm at all by taking 4-94 in 42 overs of honest toil.

Skipper Alan Melville - many critics' choice to take over from Goddard in the Test side - led the South Africans' reply with a composed, five hour innings of 72, but Waqar Younis tore through the lower order with the old ball to claim an excellent five wicket return on a decidedly unhelpful surface, and a South African total of 226 gave the Pakistanis a 107 run lead on first innings. The South Africans had scored at barely two runs an over though, and by the time the Pakistanis began their second dig it was well into the fourth day. With a result unlikely, Imran opted for batting practice, and Mohsin Khan (86) shared century partnerships with both Mudassar (56) and Zaheer (69*) before the declaration gave the SAI XI half an hour to bat before the close and the inevitable draw.

All of Pakistan's top six will now enter the first Test having notched fifties in this game, and with Wasim and Waqar both looking in good shape the tourists will be in a largely positive frame of mind at the start of the series. However, there was a cloud to Pakistan's silver lining; both Asif Iqbal and Intikhab Alam spent time off the field in this match with tweaks to groin and calf respectively, and the hamstring injury that ruled Abdul Qadir out of this game appears worse than first thought and may rule the leg spinner out of the first half of the series. Iqbal Qasim has been placed on standby and will most likely join the party during the first Test.

Scores
Pakistanis 1st Inns 333 (Majid Khan 51, Javed Miandad 51, Asif Iqbal 50; Rowan 4-94)
SAI XI 1st Inns 226 (Melville 72; Waqar Younis 5-66)
Pakistanis 2nd Inns 212-2 dec. (Mohsin Khan 86, Zaheer Abbas 69*, Mudassar Nazar 56)
SAI XI 2nd Inns 36-0

MATCH DRAWN