beat the no

8/13/2019 Beat the No

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Beat the No. 1 side by 141 runs. Beat them again by 134. In the first game, put

them under a mountain of runs and straitjacket them with exceptional quick

bowling. In the next, watch the same batsmen capitulate through low-

percentage shots. This tour has all the makings of being to South Africa what theWest Indies series was to India in November. And never mind what Dale Steyn

feels, South Africa's elder statesmen are not getting ahead of themselves . AB de

Villiers and Hashim Amla both laughed heartily when asked if this Indian team

was proving to be too easy, but they wouldn't get drawn into making what could

be seen as inappropriate statements that might come back to bite them later.

De Villiers was at pains to not be seen as arrogant when ahead. When asked if itwas becoming a bit easy, because it felt so from the outside, de Villiers repeated

the "no" five times.

"They are a world-class unit," de Villiers said. "They are world champions. I can

go for an hour if I talk about the Indian team. [I] still expect them to come back

in the third ODI. A lot of pride to play for. It will be massive for us to beat them

3-0. A lot to play for. They are still a world-class unit. We will always haverespect for them as a team."

After his press conference, de Villiers moved to the right, and gave unassuming

Hashim Amla the seat in front of the microphones. Now Amla and Quinton de

Kock have added more than 150 in back-to-back games against India's bowling,

becoming only the second pair in ODIs to do so. At times in the Durban ODI, it

looked like they were not tested at all. Like de Villiers, Amla, too, was asked ifthe Indian bowling was "easy meat" for the openers.

Amla let out a loud laugh and said, "You want such a controversial thing for me

to say."

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After everyone had had their laughs and drawn their own inferences, Amla went

on to say: "Nothing at all like that. Fortunately for me and Quinny [de Kock] - to

score runs you need things to go your way. In both games, we could have got

caught with leading edges, caught third man… Things have just gone our way inthe last two games. India have bowled well upfront. We haven't gone off to

blistering starts, just knocked it around a bit and bided our time. In the first

game, AB and JP [Duminy] were the guys who did a bulk of the damage at the

back end. Before that, they had bowled quite well. So there is no such thing as

easy meat. We have fortunately got things going our way."

Having said that, de Villiers was pretty pleased his side had beaten the No. 1side in ODIs so comprehensively in successive matches.

"We are nowhere near the No. 1 team in the world at the moment even though

we have beaten them two in a row now," de Villiers said. "We know tournaments

like the World Cup, they are about 11 games, this is just two in a row. It's

definitely a step in the right direction, but in a humble way we would like to work

hard on our game and make sure we still compete with the best in the worldconsistently."

Steyn's remarks that a few of the Indian batsmen might have been scared were

still being talked about, but de Villiers also said that his batsmen have been

setting up the games. He was "chuffed" that his lower order got him crucial runs

in this match - especially the 29 in the last two overs - that turned a total just

over par into a superlative one. Especially given South Africa's bowling, whichnow seems to have established a hold on the Indian batsmen.

"Hopefully, we did scare off a few of their batters going into the final ODI and

the Test series," de Villiers said. "It's always nice to sort of scare a few batters

going into a big series like this, especially a batting line-up like the Indian team


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has. I think they are very talented and to sort of get under their skin is always

important, especially in home conditions."

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Feeds: Sidharth Monga

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

SHARJAH: South Africa demolished Pakistan in the fifth and final one day

international (ODI) as they won by by 117 runs at Sharjah on

Monday to clinch the five match series 1-4, Express News reported.

The only notable contribution from the Pakistani batting line up was

from new comer Sohaib Maqsood, who scored 53 runs off 65 balls as

Pakistan collapsed to 151 all out in just 35 overs.

Earlier, South Africa scored 268 runs for the loss of seven wickets in

their allotted 50 overs to set a target of 269 for Pakistan to chase in the

fifth and final one day international (ODI) of five match series between

Pakistan and South Africa, espncricinfo reported.

South African skipper AB de Villiers scored a century as he helped his

side score more than 250 runs in the third successive ODI, scoring 25

runs off the final over. He remained unbeaten on 115 runs off 102 balls.

Besides de Villiers, Francois du Plessis made 46 off 89 balls.

Saeed Ajmal was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan, he took three

wickets for 45 runs, while Junaid Khan picked up two wickets for 57 inhis spell of nine overs.

South Africa, with an unassailable 3-1 lead, rested pace spearhead Dale

Steyn and Morne Morkel as well as spinner Imran Tahir.South Africa

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won the toss and opted to bat in the fifth and final day-night

international against Pakistan in Sharjah on Monday.

They were replaced by Vernon Philander, Wayne Parnell and Robin

Peterson.

Pakistan, who lost the first match here by one run, brought back Umar

Amin in place of Asad Shafiq.

After this series the two teams play Twenty20 internationals in Dubai on

November 13 and 15.

Pakistan Misbahul Haq (c), Ahmed Shehzad, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez,

Mohammad Irfan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail

Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin.

South Africa

AB de Villiers (c), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Jean-Paul Duminy,

Faf du Plessis, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Robin

Peterson, Vernon Philander, Lanwabo Tsotsobe.

beat the no

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