Pak Vs S.A Series buildup

[Mr Hutt]

Soon the guys in green will go to south africa to battle them on lively and bouncy pitches. IMO its not going to be easy to beat pakistan no matter what S.A have done to India, Pakistans middle order is in much better form than India and we are coming back well even after the loss of our best fast bowlers. Pakistan is a team with a lot of spirit and fightback these days and they will give S.A one hell of a fight.

I also liked what Yousuf said about the pitches, he said the same was said when we went to england but i made 3 centuries there so its not like we cant play on lively pitches. Plus every country builds pitches according to their own atmosphere and playing conditions if we cant play on their pitches they cant play on ours as well!!!

So what do you all think, predictions?

[gangstacocacola]

Well, i agree with you in that our batsman are in better form than India's. Also the pitch, if its lively and bouncy will suit umar gul. hes a tall fast bowler that can extract bounce. shahid nazir will also get the ball to swing. will be tough for our openers also. Mohammad yousuf did say that the team will be practising on slabs to help them train for the bounce. will be a tight series i reckon. their fielding is also better than ours. If we can even draw the test series it will be a moral victory for us. got to wait and see now.

[batoutofhell]

i expect a better contest this time from pakistan(compared to one sided matches between india and saf)
looking forward to gul and nazir and also kaneria
not sure about pakistan batting(much better than india but still they gave lot of chance during windies test matches)

[Aussie-Yank]

I am leaning towards SA, I believe the Pakistan team is stronger in there batting lineup. However, I feel SA will win it in the bowling.

[gibbs_fan]

Lets not judge too quickly. India have only been hrashed in the 1 day games so far. They may perform better in the tests, although I still believe SA will beat them quite comfortably.

Now lets talk about Pakistan. I think that SA will beat them although it might be close. I still believe, based on previous performances, that the Pakistani batsmen will struggle. Yousuf is a great player and one of my favourites but his runs alone will not be able to beat SA. I believe that once again, the Pakistani openers will struggle. I do not believe that Younis Khan will score too many either. SA bowlers always perform at home. Yousuf and Inzimam are the only real threat although the other batsmen will contribute here and there but not enough.

I also see Pakistans bowling as a greater threat than their batting and seeing that SA have been batting poorly of late, this will be a great contest. It also depends on the India series, we could find that all the SA batsmen play themselves in form against the poor Indian attack. Also remember that South Africans tend to play fast bowing well. SA do however struggle against spin and swing bowling. It will be interesting to watch Kaneria here.

Also remember that SA have never lost a test series against Pakistan in SA. In fact SA only lose to Australia at home and of course the last series against England. You will find that SA are a very hard side to beat at home. If Pakistan can come away from SA with a win, then I believe they are on the way to becoming a very good test side and may even be able to claim the no2 spot from England.

Lets wait and see