South Africa too professional for Pakistan

Herschelle Gibbs scored his seventh career century as South Africa outclassed Pakistan by 54 runs in the first match of the Morocco Cup Monday.

Gibbs struck a flawless 114 and nullified Waqar Younis's five for 38 to propel South Africa to an imposing 283 for nine. Pakistan, in their turn, never succeeded in building partnerships and were finally dismissed for 229.

It was an excellent allround performance by the South Africans who were initially expected to be rusty after coming from the four-month lay-off. In their last assignment, there were routed by the Australians in both the Tests and one-day series.

For Pakistan, it must be a timely wake-up call as they have entered into the competition as odds-on favourites after having won everything this year, including a 2-1 victory over Australia in the Super Challenge-II.

When Shaun Pollock decided to make first use of the wicket after winning the toss, many thought he had made a mistake as the pitch was new and nobody was convinced how it would behave. And although Gary Kirsten was a victim to double paced wicket, the South Africans kept their cool. Gibbs controlled the proceedings and rest of the players just provided him the support from the other end by rotating the strike.

South Africa were on course for a 300 plus score when Gibbs and Jonty Rhodes were batting. But a late charge by Waqar restricted South Africa to 283 when he picked three of his five wickets in the death overs.

Gibbs struck everything from the centre of the willow and produced eight exquisite boundaries. High winds in the open area also allowed him to fetch three elegant sixes that had all the timing and minimum of power.

Gibbs featured in two fruitful partnerships. For the third wicket with Nicky Boje (52), he added85 off 82 balls while for the fourth wicket with Rhodes (46), he put on 120 runs from 112 balls.

Gibbs completed his century in style when he hit Saqlain Mushtaq gracefully and against the spin for a boundary. He picked up a boundary and a six off successive balls in the same over.

Besides a disappointing performance from Saqlain, Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq were also below-par, although it would be unjustified to blame Afridi because he is not a specialist bowler. He is a batsma-cum-bowler but the team management is bent upon making him a bowler-cum-batsman.

When Pakistan batted in better and warmer conditions, Saeed Anwar and Imran Nazir provided them a good start when they posted 55 before things started to go wrong.

Imran was worth watching when he played glorious drives during his 31-ball knock that produced nine boundaries. He scored 40 before being trapped in front of the wickets by Jacques Kallis who also accounted for Saeed.

Afridi threw his bat around and picked up three fours and a six in his 29-ball 34 but he was fighting for a lost cause. Pakistan slim hopes ended when Rashid Latif was adjudged leg before by nudging the ball down the fine-leg and a couple of balls later Abdul Razzaq had his stumps shattered by Allan Donald.