Pakistan Eye Maiden Series Win in South Africa

Port Elizabeth: After their dismal performance in the United Arab Emirites, Pakistan have done a lot better in South Africa's backyard and now have the opportunity to register the Maiden ever bilateral ODI series win against South Africa.

Pakistan will see it as the ideal opportunity to push for a first series win against Proteas. Pakistan also need to put on bigger partnerships, but with an attack that gives them the edge this could be a chance for them to spoil South Africa's milestone match.

After strangely deciding to drop its most successful limited-overs bowler this year, South Africa has slipped suddenly from a resounding 4-1 away win over Pakistan to the prospect of losing a one-day series against the same team for the first time.

The 23-run defeat in the opening match of a three-game return contest in South Africa on Sunday left the inconsistent Proteas under pressure at home in a must-win second one-dayer on Wednesday - and probably regretting the move to leave Ryan McLaren out of the series-opener.

South Africa's problem was finding a place for veteran allrounder Jacques Kallis, who returned for his first one-day international in nearly two years. Although Kallis returned seamlessly with two wickets and a half century in his first ODI since February 2012, South Africa's overall performance was upset without McLaren.

However, it was Pakistan which made history on its short tour by winning its first ODI at Cape Town's Newlands while South Africa tinkered with its bowling attack by bringing in Kallis and regular test seamer Vernon Philander at the expense of McLaren, who has led South Africa's limited-overs wicket-takers in 2013.

De Villiers did concede it was "a tough decision" to leave McLaren out and the allrounder was expected to be among the "one or two" changes to the team the skipper said were likely for the pressure game at St. George's Park.

The loss at Newlands underlined South Africa's ongoing struggle for consistency in team selection and performance in limited-overs cricket despite it being the top-ranked test team.

In contrast, Pakistan has made progress after agreeing to the short-notice limited-overs tour, winning a T20 and an ODI at Newlands and discovering promising allrounders Bilawal Bhatti and Anwar Ali in the process. On their ODI debuts, the pair combined for a game-changing 74-run partnership for the eighth wicket at Newlands and shared five crucial wickets in South Africa's reply.

Teams from:

South Africa: Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers (Captain), Jean-Paul Duminy, David Miller, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, Wayne Parnell, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Pakistan: Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sohaib Maqsood, Misbah-ul-Haq (Captain), Umar Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Bilawal Bhatti, Anwar Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Abdur Rehman, Asad Shafiq, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Amin

Stats and trivia

• Graeme Smith need 12 runs to reach the mark of 7000 in ODI cricket. In case he gets there in the second ODI, Smith will become only the third South African after Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs with 7000 or more in the 50-over format.
• South Africa have won 18 of the 27 ODIs they have played at St Georges' Park. The last time they lost there was in November 2009 against England, but since then they have only played two ODIs there.
• Pakistan have played seven bilateral ODI series against South Africa and have lost.
• Pakistan have the record for the highest score in an ODI at this ground. They piled on 335 for 6 in December 2002, a match they won by 182 runs.

Match facts
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Start time 1000 local (0800 GMT)