Date-stamped : 23 Jan95 - 10:51 South Africa v Pakistan, One-off Test played at the Wanderers, Johannesburg, 19-23 January 1995 ====> Day 1 Epic journey for Nazir comes to a glorious end - Geoffrey Dean AAMIR NAZIR added a memorable twist to the inaugural Test between South Africa and Pakistan when he took two important wickets yesterday - after having arrived from Pakistan an hour before play started. The medium-pacer had been summoned as an emergency replacement and succumbed to the strain of his 24-hour journey by breaking down with cramp in his seventh over but returned to end the dangerous partnership between Jonty Rhodes and Brian McMillan, who helped South Africa to amass 354 for seven. A chronology of Nazir's day is worth recording: 9.30 am: arrives at Johannesburg Airport after 24-hour round trip from Lahore via London. Stunned to hear of selection for Test starting an hour later. 10.45: arrives at ground, Akram Raza deputising in field after permission sportingly given by South Africa's captain, Hansie Cronje. 11.05: makes grand entry to applause from 8,000 crowd. 12.10 pm:comes on to bowl his medium pace and has 21 taken off his first three overs. 1.45: breaks down in seventh over with cramp and leaves field. 3.30: returns after tea break to field. 4.54: brought back by a desperate Salim Malik to try to break Rhodes-McMillan partnership. 5.07: against all expectation has Rhodes caught at first slip. 5.09: yorks Dave Richardson first ball to put himself on a hat trick. 5.21: breaks down in mid-over for the second time with cramp and hobbles off with figures of 9.1-0-48-2. It was an unforgettable day's cricket not only for Nazir but also for McMillan, who scored his maiden Test hundred to rescue South Africa after they had been precariously placed at 168 for five. Together he and Rhodes put on 157 in just 39 overs with Rhodes making his first Test fifty for nearly a year. Rhodes scored at a fair rate - 72 off 129 balls - but not as quickly as McMillan, whose hundred was made off just 146 balls. The Pakistanis seemed convinced that they could bounce McMillan out but the two fielders permanently positioned behind square on the leg side waited in vain for a top edge. McMillan's only mistake came at 105 when Wasim Akram bowled him round his legs with a no-ball. Hard pitch encouraged strokeplay That South Africa maintained a run rate of four an over all day was due to a combination of factors - a hard pitch which encouraged strokeplay, some wayward Pakistani bowling, a fast outfield and a profusion of extras - 58 in all, 31 of which were no-balls. Wasim Akram, clearly not match fit, was the main culprit with 19. Pakistan did not bowl well at any stage, having picked up early wickets thanks to some poor batting and one awful umpiring decision. Rudi Steyn, caught behind leg glancing, John Commins, who played on, and Cronje, caught cutting in the gully, all got themselves out, and Daryll Cullinan was given out caught behind despite missing the ball, so TV replays showed, by six inches. Almost as important as Rhodes and McMillan's contributions was Gary Kirsten's sixth Test fifty. He looked good for a maiden hundred before edging to slip. (c) The Electronic Telegraph is a Registered Service Mark of The Telegraph plc Contributed by Syed (sma@dcs.ed.ac.uk) ====> Day 1, more This is a one off test match between South Africa and Pakistan. It is beiing played at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Speculation over the last few days has been that Waqar Younis would not make the Pakistan side as he is battling with a back injury after the recent ODI series. Bob Woolmer, SA`s coach, doubted this speculation and thought that Pakistan were pulling a fast one on SA, right up until the teams were announced just be- fore play began yesterday. Hansie Cronje won the toss and chose to bat first on a wicket that saw quite a bit of rain in the few days leading up to the match. The wicket was (according to Gary Kirsten) pretty slow with quite a bit of movement, but this is expected to settle on days 2 and 3 and start playing up again on days 4 and 5. Jack Bannister noted at the end of play, that there are several impressions in the pitch from the follow throughs of certain of the bowlers, and these could start creating uncertain bounce from day 2. It is expected that the match will be interrupted by rain, as late afternoon thundershowers are pretty common in Johannesburg at this time of year. Aamer Nazir was flown in from Pakistan to replace the injured Younis, and arrived at the Wanderers straight off a 17 hour flight, 36 minutes after the match began. RSA made the gesture of ignoring the rule stating that a player is not allowed to bowl for the same amount of time as he is off the field, and Nazir started working yesterday morning. Unfortunately he had prob- lems with what seem to be cramps in his right calf muscle, and so had a couple of overs where he did not complete his over and went off. Concern has been expressed that this may be a torn muscle, but that we will only know today. The day`s play was very much a rollercoaster ride, with Pakistan very much dominating the first session, and RSA fighting back well after lunch, and ending off dominating the match with some very positive batting that had South Africa with a run-rate of over 4 per over for most of the day. It was only in the last 30 minutes of play that they slowed a bit. Things did not look to bright yesterday morning when Rudi Steyn was given out caught behind for 1 run after only 16 balls had been faced. The replays clearly show that the deflection came off Steyn`s thighpad, and he can consider himself unlucky. The umpire took a long time in making his decision, and as far as I am con- cerned, that indicates doubt. If there`s doubt, it is supposed to go the way of the batsman. The umpire on this decision was Kitchens. Gary Kirsten and John Commins then set about building, and Gary hit Wassim Akram`s bad bowling all over the field. Akram seemed to battle yesterday as is evidenced by the 18 no-balls that he bowled. His run-rate is flattering, to say the least. It seems that the shortened run up is not working for him. Kirsten and Commins built up a good partnership and both were playing very positively before Commins dragged a ball on to his wickets from a thick inside edge. 28 balls later, Cullinan was dismissed for a duck, and SA were 59/3. Cullinan was also dismissed caught behind, and the decision made by umpire Cyril Mitchley was also far from correct. The ball didn`t hit either the bat or the pad, and slipped through to the keeper. Whatever the case, Cullinan was out. The remainder of the day saw SA build some good partnerships, not least of which was a 157 run 6th wicket partnership between Jonty Rhodes and Brian McMillan. Rhodes showed a lot of restraint, and played a much better innings than he has played all season. McMillan played exceptionally well and never lacked confidence against any of the bowlers. He scored his first test century and was not out overnight on 106. Tragedy struck poor Dave Richardson. After Rhodes was dismissed off a ball that he tried to steer down to third man through a va- cant second slip, but which found ul-Haq at first slip (brilliant catch), Richardson came in and tried to dig out a yorker from Na- zir that was piching outside the off-stump, and got the bal between the toe of the bat and the ground, and the deflection went onto the stumps. The Pakistani fielding and bowling lacked polish, and the bowling was particularly poor, conceding 58 extras off the day`s play. The world record for extras in a test match is held by Pakistan against the West Indies, and is 72. Lets see if they can break that record today. South Africa ended the day at 354/7 - a really cracking start. Contributed by Bruce.Gruenbaum (bruceg@iaccess.za) ====> Day 2, 20 Jan 95 It was a day that was totally dominated by one man: the great, the inimitable, the one and only, Fanie de Villiers. Brian McMillan went out in the 98th over caught behind by Moin Khan off the bowling of Aqib Javed for 113. His 113 came off 182 balls in 224 minutes. He played 57 scoring shots and hit 15 4`s. What a performance! Enter Fanie de Villiers. He looked a little unsettled at first, and then started getting settled and scoring well off all the Pakistan bowlers, especially Akram who got hit for 2 6`s (I think). He scored his highest ever test score of 66 not out off 69 balls with 9 4`s and 3 6`s. Eksteen got out with Fanie on about 20, and Donald came in and they put on a record 10th wicket partnership of 71. It was a truly amazing knock, and it was great to see Fanie with his eye so well in. Donald`s dismissal came 3 or 4 minutes before the lunch interval, and SA were all out for an excellent 460. I heard a radio interview with Fanie last night where he said that he had really enjoyed his knock. He noted that SA had intended declaring at 450, but because he was enjoying his knock so much, Cronje had said to play until all the wickets went down. What a captain! Compare that with Atherton!!! A lot of people were quite concerned that the Pakistan batsmen would get out and hammer the South African bowling attack as they did with the first one-day international in the Mandela Cup fi- nal. This did not happen, and Fanie looked devastating from the beginning. Each one of the first three left-handed batsmen fell to a ball that was turning away from their off-stumps, and each one of them got an outside edge. Sohail was the only one of the first three that started showing any form, but as with most of the other wickets that fell, he seemed to have just played in when his wicket fell. Malik came in to play a true captain`s innings, and was the only Pakistan batsman that seemed to come to grips with the SA bowling attack. Ahmed was absolutely dumb-founded at his dismissal. He got a ball from De Villiers, and stepped across his wicket to try and play the ball to square leg. The ball straightened up and clipped the bails off the top of his leg-stump. The look on his face at that dismissal was priceless. He really had no idea of what the ball was doing. Ul-Haq was just as surprised when he played a ball of Big Mac`s that was pitching outside the off-stump on to his wickets. He also just stood in disgust. Wasim Akram and Salim Malik carried the day`s play through to 17:25 when bad light stopped play, 5 overs ahead of schedule. Pakistan still need 84 runs to avoid the follow-on. De Villiers intimated in his interview yesterday that South Africa would probably not enforce the follow-on, as the wicket will start deteriorating tomorrow, and SA will want a target to bowl at for the second Pakistan innings. It would seem that the best option will be to go in and set a target of 450, and then leave a day and a half to bowl out the Pakistanis. The bookmakers figure that the match cannot be lost by South Africa, and that the chance is good that they will actually win it unless the weather interferes too much. Contributed by Bruce (bruceg@iaccess.za)