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An assured 117 from Mohammad Yousuf guided Pakistan to a 25-run win in the second ODI in Lahore to level the five-match ODI series 1-1. South Africa crashed to their first defeat of the tour as Pakistan, despite an atrocious fielding display, held their nerve to defend 266.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, Pakistan slumped to 13 for 2 by the sixth over of the innings before Yousuf, with useful contributions from Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan, rescued them. Although failing to clear the infield on various occasions, Yousuf’s nine boundaries, mostly through the cover region, were scintillating. A couple of cover-drives off Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini early in his innings - one leaning forward, the other going back - eased the pressure and forced the field to the edge of the circle.

Yousuf shared a 60-run third-wicket partnership with Younis Khan, who was unlucky to be run out after a terrible misjudgment by Yousuf. Having driven and cut forcefully on the way to 32, Younis was turned back after being called and a threatening innings was prematurely terminated.

It turned into a blessing in disguise for Pakistan as Malik dispatched the attack, especially Johan Botha who persisted with his round-the-wicket line, to all parts of the ground. A century partnership with Yousuf featured Malik regularly jumping down the wicket and clearing the straight boundary by quite a distance. Using deft touches to deliveries close to his body, Malik picked up the singles and twos. He guided Charl Langeveldt past point and glanced Botha down to fine leg for boundaries as Pakistan’s scoring-rate crossed the five-an-over mark.

However, unusually subdued batting by Yousuf slowed down Pakistan’s progress. After an attacking half-century, Malik perished pulling a Langeveldt delivery to Justin Kemp at long-on. A run-a-ball 21 by Misbah-ul-Haq and a solitary six by Afridi marginally lifted the scoring-rate as Yousuf nudged around for his 13th ODI hundred, but only his third in the last 53 innings.

South Africa’s bowlers ended the innings just as they had started - by not giving the batsmen any room and restricting them to singles. Aided by rash strokeplay by the tail, wickets fell in a flurry towards the end.

Pakistan needed early wickets to peg back South Africa and Umar Gul, opening the bowling this time round, provided just that, as after cleaning up Graeme Smith off a no-ball, he struck Herschelle Gibbs plumb in front for a first-ball duck. As Kallis failed to repeat his heroics from the Test series for the second time running - edging a wide Sohail Tanvir delivery to Younis Khan at second slip - after being beaten time and again, Pakistan were truly on top.

Although Smith and AB de Villiers staged a mini-recovery, it was Pakistan’s fielding that let them off the hook more. Dropping no less than five catches - Misbah, Afridi and Gul being the culprits - Pakistan looked sloppy in the field as Smith capitalised on some wayward bowling from Sohail Tanvir. With the ball being angled across him from the left-armer, Smith utilised the flick well to score freely in the square leg and mid-wicket region.

As de Villiers joined the show - flicking Tanvir to square leg and driving him through extra cover down on one knee - the home side eased the pressure. The introduction of Afridi, however, slowed the scoring-rate considerably, while Iftikhar Anjum got rid of de Villiers and Justin Kemp.

Smith, probably the luckiest man in Lahore, trudged around for his half-century and Mark Boucher completed 4000 ODI runs, but South Africa needed more than singles and twos to go 2-0 up in the series. The spinners, however, persisted with a nagging line and the batsmen failed to score freely and perished trying to increase the tempo. Although Pollock and Albie Morkel threatened with late cameos, the rocketing asking-rate left the tail with much to do as Pakistan successfully defended under lights to head to Faisalabad all square.

Source:Cricket News