South Africa Rampant At Centurion

South African posted the seventh highest total in one-day international cricket history as they hammered Pakistan in the first one-day international at Centurion Park today, as they scored a huge 392-6 off their 50 overs. Pakistan's mediocre display with the bat and the ball lost them the game by 164 runs.

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl first, a decision they would come to regret as South Africa exploded at the beginning of their innings, with Graeme Smith scoring 72 off 47 deliveries at the top as they raced to 140 in just 18 overs without losing a wicket. Mohammad Hafeez then took the wickets of Smith and Loots Bosman in the same over whilst AB de Villiers was playing coolly for his 67 at the other end. When de Villiers went the score was 167-3 after just 23 overs. Jacques Kallis then took over as the big hitter as he and Ashwell Prince added 68 for the fourth wicket, before Prince was out caught to Shahid Afridi and Kallis was joined by Mark Boucher.

This would go on to become a memorable partnership between the two batsmen, as Kallis was scoring at around a run-a-ball, Boucher went into super-slog mode and went all-out for attack, his Afridi style 78 came from just 38 balls and included 9 fours and 4 sixes, before Rana Naved-ul-Hasan finally dismissed him in the 48th over. Justin Kemp produced a short but sweet knock as South African reached a big score of 392-6. Some of the Pakistani bowling figures were laughable. Rana Naved's 8 overs went for 92 runs, Mohammad Sami bowled 7 overs for 68 runs and Abdul Razzaq bowled one over for 22 runs.

Pakistan's innings got off to the wrong start, as Makhaya Ntini took three early wickets and Shaun Pollock got another to reduce the Pakistanis to 70-4 in 11 overs. Mohammad Yousuf hit a quickfire 39 and Inzamam Ul-Haq hit 15 but it was to no avail as they both fell quickly to South African bowler Andre Nel and Jacques Kallis respectively, and they were reeling at the lowly score of 199-6, Abdul Razzaq completed a shocking game and he made the score 125-7. Pakistan still needed another 12 runs to avoid the highest ever ODI defeat when Rana Naved's duck made it 125-8. That was before a half-century from all-rounder Shaoib Malik and a spectular 46 from tail-ender Mohammad Sami helped Pakistan put on 73 for the 9th wicket. Malik took over as the front-line batsmen and scored all the runs off the bat except two to put on 30 for the final wicket, as Pakistan were dismissed for 228 in a performance they would like to forget quickly.

Match Summary
South Africa 392-6 (50 overs)
JH Kallis 88 (85)
MV Boucher 78 (38)
GC Smith 72 (47)
AB de Villiers 67 (78)
Shahid Afridi 2-42 (10 overs)
Mohammad Hafeez 2-69 (9)

Pakistan 228 (46.4 overs)
Shaoib Malik 52 (84)
Mohammad Sami 46 (64)
Mohammad Yousuf 39 (25)
JH Kallis 3-34 (5)
M Ntini 3-51 (10)

South Africa win by 164 runs
Man of the Match: JH Kallis (South Africa)