Ken Borland

An amazing bowling performance by Andrew Birch led the Warriors to a crushing 10-wicket victory over the Knights on the third day of their four-day domestic franchise series match in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

The Knights batsmen could not fathom the late swing Birch obtained in cloudy conditions, crashing to 106 all out in their second innings, leaving the Warriors with a target of just 94 to win the match.

Birch finished with career-best figures of eight for 30 as he claimed four of the five wickets to fall on Saturday morning after the Knights had resumed on 76 for five.

He struck for the first time in his second over of the day, having Patrick Botha (18) caught behind by Adrian McLaren to break a stubborn sixth-wicket stand of 33 with Dean Elgar.

Elgar, fresh off his maiden Test century last weekend, top-scored for the Knights with 34 before he was also caught behind off Birch four overs later.

Birch then wrapped up the Knights tail for the addition of just 20 more runs as the home side completed a dismal second-innings effort that lasted just 32.1 overs.

Quickfire innings of 48 not out by Michael Price and 44 not out by Davey Jacobs would then see the Warriors go to victory in just 13.3 overs without the loss of a wicket.

The Warriors earned 17.62 bonus points to go to 92 points overall, just 0.18 points behind the log-leading Cape Cobras.

The last rites took a while, but the summer of ’13 still ended on the most triumphant of notes for South Africa as they completed an innings-and-18-run victory over Pakistan at Centurion and a 3-0 sweep of the series.

It’s just the third time South Africa have claimed a whitewash in a series of at least three Tests, the other two instances being the great Springbok team of 1969/70 that hammered Australia 4-0 and the impressive 5-0 clobbering of the West Indies in 1998/99, when the tourists had such greats as Brian Lara, Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh in their ranks.

The Pakistan second innings came to an end just before 5pm on Sunday on 235 all out, the last pair of Rahat Ali and Mohammad Irfan having frustrated the South Africans for 45 minutes.

Pakistan were in a good state at lunch as Azhar Ali and Imran Farhat batted with defiance and positivity to take them to 87 for two, but Dale Steyn and Rory Kleinveldt reduced them to 176 for six by tea.

Steyn finished with four for 80 and Kleinveldt and Abbott took two wickets each. Considering it was a dead rubber game and South Africa were missing two key cogs in Jacques Kallis and Morne Morkel, it was an emphatic statement of their intent to truly dominate Test cricket.

“It’s been a very special summer at home and this result is very important. We wanted to step up, we were a bit uncertain about what to do on the first day, but we took on the challenge of batting. It would have been easy to be soft in this Test and not totally commit to the cause, but if you’re 10% off your game at this level, then you’re not going to produce a performance,” captain Graeme Smith said.

“It shows we’re hungry and we have a real pride in our performance. There was maturity and professionalism. We’ve had a few injuries, but to see the new guys come in and step up shows that there’s a good environment and platform for them to perform.”

None more so than Abbott, who owned the third best match figures ever on debut for South Africa of nine for 68. South African cricket’s house is clearly in order on the field considering how well debutants have done recently.

Three of the last four pace bowlers – Vernon Philander and Marchant de Lange being the others – have taken a five-wicket haul in their debut Test, while Faf du Plessis and Dean Elgar both have centuries to their name.

Kleinveldt is the odd seamer out, but he bowled well at Centurion and eventually had some reward when he picked up the wickets of Misbah ul-Haq (5) and Asad Shafiq (6) midway through the second session.

Azhar and Farhat had added 54 for the third wicket and South Africa were in need of a breakthrough after lunch.

And it came, as ever, from Steyn, although this time it was a run out.

Farhat had turned left-arm spinner Robin Peterson to fine leg and Azhar was looking for a second run, but was turned back and couldn’t make his ground from just two metres down the pitch as Steyn fired in a superb bullet throw straight over the stumps.

Quite how the lower-order wagged so enthusiastically – Sarfraz Ahmed (40), Saeed Ajmal (31), Ehsan Adil (12) and Rahat (22) didn’t really mind how the runs came – baffled many, but victory was never in doubt.

Pakistan had begun the day on 14 for one and Azhar and Younis Khan survived for the first half-hour, before the opener and Farhat added 48 for the third wicket to take the tourists to lunch and cut the deficit to 166 runs.

The match situation was right down the obdurate Azhar’s alley and the 28-year-old batted for nearly three hours and faced 110 balls in scoring his 27.

Farhat, in contrast, once again looked keen to tee it up and struck five fours in his 43 off 91 deliveries.

Philander and Abbott were both probing, but the pick of the bowlers in the morning was Steyn, who had bowled nine overs for 22 runs and taken both wickets.

He removed Mohammad Hafeez with the first ball of the innings on the second evening and added the scalp of Younis for 11 on Sunday.

Steyn struck with a beautiful late away-swinger, Younis reaching for the ball to try and play it to mid-on, getting the outside edge and sending a comfortable catch to Smith at first slip.

Misbah ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq were fixtures at the crease for the last three-and-a-bit hours as defiant Pakistan ended the third day of the first Test against South Africa on 183 for four at the Wanderers.

The Pakistan captain and his 27-year-old partner had added 101 in 191 minutes for the fifth wicket as the tourists made the South African bowlers work hard. The victory target of 480 is still most probably out of reach and the Proteas will be hoping the second new ball, due in five overs time, will end the resistance.

The South Africans had declared their second innings 45 minutes into the morning on 275 for three, after the dashing AB de Villiers had completed his century, and the attack then chipped away to reduce Pakistan to 104 for four at tea.

But the white-knuckle determination of Misbah and Shafiq put thoughts of another three-day kill to bed as they batted through to stumps to finish on 44 and 53 not out respectively.

The 13 858 people at the Wanderers and the many others on their couches thought South Africa had finally broken through midway through the final session when Shafiq, on 40, edged the fourth ball of Vernon Philander’s fourth spell to Graeme Smith at slip.

But it was quickly revealed via TV replays that Philander had over-stepped and bowled a no-ball, and the batsman was hastily recalled. It’s a problem that has bedevilled South Africa in the recent past and there seems little serious effort to correct it as Philander was regularly over-stepping on Thursday in the nets and bowling coach Allan Donald was nowhere to be seen.

And to make matters worse, just five deliveries later, Misbah, on 31, sent a square-drive off Jacques Kallis to Robin Peterson’s right at backward point and the normally reliable fielder moved to his right but fluffed the regulation catch.

Dale Steyn had spoken the previous day about how the South African team can produce “power performances” at the right time.

“This team can definitely take a game away from anyone and it’s not just the bowlers, the batsmen can do it too, like in Perth and Adelaide. When we put our minds and forces together, we’re pretty hard to beat. It’s a very special team that can produce power performances,” Steyn said after his incredible six for eight in 8.1 overs had put South Africa in a match-winning situation.

But with the ball not swinging, the pitch probably at its best for batting and Pakistan putting in an improved batting display, the South Africans were de-powered on Sunday.

There was an element of risk in their early declaration on Sunday morning as it meant Pakistan would almost certainly win the game if they could bat for long enough. There are now 180 overs left in the match and they need “just” 297 more runs, a required rate of 1.6 per over.

“I was a little bit surprised by the timing of the declaration,” Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore admitted. “But the second new ball will be crucial tomorrow, we’ve got to get over that first and it won’t be easy, even for two set batsmen.”

“It crossed my mind that we should just totally bat them out of the game, but obviously Graeme and Gary [coach Kirsten] thought differently. We like to play a positive brand of cricket and no team has scored more than 400 on this deck. I don’t see Pakistan doing it because the cracks are opening up and we have the second new ball early tomorrow,” De Villiers said.

He and Hashim Amla had resumed on Sunday morning on 207 for three and quickly rattled up 68 more runs in nine overs, with De Villiers driving beautifully down the ground and square on the off-side as he scored 40 runs off 33 balls to go to his 15^th Test century.

Amla also scored at a run-a-ball and finished on 74 not out, his 25^th Test half-century and enough to give South Africa a lead of more than 450 which De Villiers later revealed had been the benchmark figure for Smith and Kirsten.

There is no confidentiality about how South Africa will go about winning this Test on Monday – Steyn and Philander will be given the second new ball as soon as it is due and, with the morning the best time for bowling at the Wanderers, and more cloudy weather expected, they will be roaring in against Misbah and Shafiq.

Having done so well on Sunday afternoon, it remains to be seen whether that pair of Pakistan batsmen can muster the same tenacity and sheer bloody-mindedness.

Centuries of enormous composure by Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith led South Africa to 403 for two and froze England out of the game on the third day of the first Test at the Oval in London on Saturday.

   – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/sa-team/news/120721/Amla_Smith_freeze_England_out

Starting the day on 86 for one in reply to England’s 385, Smith and Amla batted with cool assurance and, with Jacques Kallis adding 82 not out at the end of the day, the Proteas completed one of their proudest days in many years.

Smith, with the pressure of expectation in his 100th Test adding to all the other burdens he bears so splendidly, marched to his century two balls before lunch, after four-and-a-half hours and 201 balls at the crease. South Africa’s captain and pride became just the seventh batsman to score a hundred in his 100th Test, joining the illustrious club of Colin Cowdrey, Gordon Greenidge, Javed Miandad, Alec Stewart, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Ricky Ponting.

The left-hander went on to 131, working the bowlers into his favoured leg side with enormous skill, but also playing some wonderful strokes through the off-side to thoroughly frustrate an England team that did not know where to bowl to him.

Smith eventually fell five overs before tea when he contrived to play a delivery from Tim Bresnan with his usual closed face of the bat on to the back of his front leg, from where the ball rebounded back on to the stumps.

But Amla continued to hold court, punishing anything loose with ruthless timing and placement as he made it to stumps on a magnificent 183 not out. Amla was highly effective when on the back foot, his punches through the off side being absolutely sumptious, but he was also majestic on the front foot, driving beautifully.

With Amla in the zone and in such masterful form, Kallis just got on with things quietly at the other end and had gone to 82 not out by stumps with no fuss at all.

It was most definitely not the day England had planned at all and their attack was reduced to powder-puff ineffectiveness by the end of the day.

Jimmy Anderson was troubled by the footholds and bowled 19 wicketless overs for 63 runs on Saturday. Graeme Swann, the other leader of the England attack, was utterly frustrated as Smith, who had been tied down by him initially, turned the tables and scored freely off the off-spinner after the first hour. Despite plenty of rough to work with, Swann finished the day with none for 99 in 42 overs.

It was a day when South Africa’s top-order were soaring high, without trying anything fancy. Just tremendous skill and concentration.

It is England who will now have to perform some special aerobatics to get back into the game.