Pakistan arrived in SA earlier today, and will be flying to Kimberley for a warm-up game against a RoSA side starting on Saturday. Mohammad Yousaf will join his teammates later.

Pakistani squad: Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Shoaib Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Asim Kamal, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal , Zulqernain Haider, Shahid Nazir, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

Even before the Indian tour started, some were already saying that the Pakistani's will prove to be more of a test for the South Africans than their neighbours.

A strong squad the Pakistani's have here, even without Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar. Akhtar may still make it to these shores, especially with the huge hue and cry from some in the Pakistani cricketing fraternity... But for now, it seems like its more likely he'll join the squad for the ODI's.

SA will be extra careful with their pitch preparations, as Kaneria will definitely play all 3 tests (venues: Centurion, St George's and Newlands)

And then there's Nazir, Gul and Asif. So a livelier pitch is not much of an option either.

*assumes David Lloyd voice* I think this will be a cracking series.


I couldn't honestly predict the way the series is going to go, but I'm gonna guess and say Pakistan.

About the pitch, South Africa have indeed got to be careful, because Pakistan are both strong in the seam and spin department, they have to hope that Ntini's gonna be on form for the seamers...

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Frank Skinner: "You know when Glenn McGrath trod on that cricket ball? Don't you wish it would've been a landmine?"

It will be a very well contested series especially welcome after watching the Ashes this year.

I think it will be very closer than some people think, true on paper Pakistan have a superb team but we all know how the South Asian batsmen fare on lively pitches.

Well, I must say that this current SA team is here for the taking. I believe that decent side coming to SA have a chnace unlike before when only Australia could win here. Pakistan is more than a decent side.

Like Speedboy has pointed out, Ntini has been carrying SA for quite some time now. I fear for SA as tehy do not have any consistent batsman other Kallis while there bowling has more bark than bite. Do not be surprised if Pakistan pull it off.

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434, world record for the shortest period. Whos choking now?

I, for one won't be...

Well the warm up game for pakistan started today against the rest of south africa. Pakistan's openers got off to a tremendous start and were 170-0 last time i checked with hafeez bringing up his century and farhat bringing up his half century.

Pakistan's batsmen at least got in some good practice against what was, one must admit, a weak RoSA attack. The 2 openers both scored centuries, and was then asked by team management to retire. Score: 485/9 decl. Inzi did not bat as he was felt a little under the weather. All the other batsmen got amongst the runs though...

In the meantime, it seems like not many people are giving the Pakistani's a ghost of a chance to beat the Proteas in the tests. As a matter of fact, Kepler Wessels went so far as to say (in the biggest Afrikaans paper in world, the Rapport yesterday), that South Africa SHOULD beat the Pakistani's a whole lot easier than they did the Indians....Anyhow, this is some of the issues Pakistan have had to dealt with already:

1. Waqar Younis resigns as bowling coach at number 99.
2. Umar Gul had a bit of an ankle injury. (Coach says he should be fit for the first test though)
3. Inzamam Ul-Haq did not bat on the second day of the warm-up game because of a chest infection.
4. Shoaib Malik has an ankle injury - out for 2 weeks.
5. Mohammad Yousuf will miss the first test, and may well be out for the rest of the test series as well, as his wife is due to give birth on the 12th.

Meanwhile, the Proteas have reatained the same side they played against the Indians.

I agree with you guys about the heavy reliance on Ntini. I don't agree that Kallis is the most consistent batsman in recent times.

I think the form of Ashwell Prince was crucial to SOuth Africa coming from one down to beat India 2-1. He was South Africa's leading run-scorer for 2006, and during the caleandar year he had a Test batting average of over 50.

Yes, Kallis' wicket is a vital one, but Pakistan need to get Prince out cheaply to ensure victory.

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Nobody has a batting stance quite like the mighty Shivnarine....

Same old story with how we tend to start overseas tours these days, we go out with a decent enough squad, which actually even looks good on paper, but half way before the start of the first international game, one quarter of the squad will be ruled out before a game, another quarter will be half fit or carry niggles, anothe quarter will be out of form and the rest might be unavailable! It all starts going pear shaped from there.

Yousuf's loss, needless to say, will be tremendous, and all the talk about our seam attack being good (which it is) stands on thin ground cause Asif's going to be coming back after a bit, Rana too in test cricket at least, and the likes of Gul and Nazir, even though they've got some recent form up their sleeves are still pretty much novices at this level, and it will be their first ever experience in South African conditions, so anything could happen.

As for the batting, Malik's injury could be a blessing in disguise, as it could finally lead the way to the Pakistani think tank giving specialists batsmen in the squad (the likes of Asim Kamal and Faisal Iqbal) a chance over bits and pieces all rounders.

And I'm not reading too much into those warm up game centuries from the openers either, I expect the pitches for the test series to be a lot different and the bowling attacks they'll face will be twice as strong, with Yousuf possibly gone, and Inzi half fit (and some what out of form too) and Younis not having scored a whole lot of runs in the recent past either, you have a whole team full of people who are not on top of their gam and/orfitness. If SA make a lively pitch, I'm actually expecting the worse.

On Waqar's resignation, its disappointing obviously, I thought he'd done some fine work with the young guys, and his contribution to especially to Umar Gul's recent success was pretty obvious to me. And he'd have been an invaluable asset for us not only in SA but two months from now in West Indies, for the World Cup. For the PCB to have told him two months before the World Cup that no sir, we only need you for the tests, was pretty stupid, and I'm yet to see any statements in the press from Dr Naseem "I'm so smart" Ashraf which try and explain why on earth he told Waqar he'd not be needed for the one-days (which needless to say yet again confirms my views of him being a complete scatterbrain). No wonder Waqar got so upset he resigned, I can't see how any person would have done differently.

As for Shoaib's omission, ah well, I don't know, the official word is that he didn't make it cause the selectors were not happy with his fitness, which is not something new, but speculation is ripe that it was because of rift between him and Inzi, which of course Inzi has denied. I don't know, may be its just the selectors them selves trying to send him a signal, that he shouldn't take his place in the side for granted (which he does normally). I'm sure he'll come back for the one-day games though.

I also read Mushy's back as assistant coach, which is good news. He shouldn't have been sacked in the first place.

True Zainub, I wonder when we will see a Pakistani tour that starts without any controversies...

Anyhow,if Malik is injured, I'd like to see them giving young Iqbal another go at test level. He has played well in this warm-up game in Kimberley (admittedly on a dead track and some mediocre bowling...imo)

I see Shahid Nazir was the best of the bowlers and got 5/61 in 21 overs. That's some good bowling there.

As far as the pitches are concerned? Well, I think we can expect much the same Newlands as the one we saw against the Indians. That's according to the pitch doctor. He has been under a lot of pressure from the coach, captain and just about every South African. Bennet Hewe is the curator of Newlands, and he says there's not a lot that can be done in the next 10 days, as the pitch was being used for school games, the cricket academy and the women's team.

I reckon the pitch with the most bounce will be Centurion, as the following 2 tests at St Georges (Port Elizabeth) and Newlands can expect to be flat.