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St. Lucia: Their title defence virtually over, a beleaguered Pakistan will be out to salvage some pride, while South Africa will hope to put their Twenty20 World Cup campaign back on track in the Group E Super Eights stage match at the Beausejour Stadium on Monday.
With none of their players featuring in the third edition of the Indian Premier League, defending champions Pakistan entered the tournament as the only side without any fatigue factor but they looked rusty and now risk an early return home after losing their first two Super Eight stage matches to England and New Zealand.
The 2009 champions looked a rudderless lot under Shahid Afridi's timid captaincy and the burden of leading seemed to have bogged down the all-rounder who looked far from his flamboyance self.
The Pakistani batting order, barring Salman Butt, has looked patchy with batsmen like Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq coming a cropper while the Akmal brothers Kamran and Umar also lacking consistency.
Their inability to chase down a meagre victory target of 134 runs in yesterday's cliff-hanger against New Zealand virtually put paid to their semifinal hopes and the batsmen would have to shoulder the blame for the team's pathetic display.
In contrast, their bowlers did a better job and restricting New Zealand to 133 was a commendable effort.
Unlike Pakistan, South Africa have everything to play for as a win might clear their semifinal passage.
Having beaten New Zealand by 13 runs in their first Super Eight match, South Africa showed a batting frailty against England yesterday that would keep them worried.
Chasing 169 for a win, only four batsmen reached double digit scores before they collapsed in 19 overs for just 129.
In the match against New Zealand, the entire top order had fired in unison but the same batsmen looked helpless against England's disciplined attack and it is something the Protea think-tank would have to sort out tomorrow.
One would expect the Protea bowlers to bend their back tomorrow and come to the aid of the team.
For South Africa, off-spinner Johan Botha has been virtually unplayable, taking wickets and hardly conceding boundaries but the Protea would need a big contribution from Dale Steyn and Charl Langeveldt up front to see them through against Pakistan.
Abdur Rehman made a fine comeback against New Zealand, picking up two cheap wickets in his first international T20 for over two years. He has always been a successful limited-overs left-arm option and his return comes after one of his best domestic seasons.
South Africa still struggle to score quickly against spin and Rehman's position, amid the spin of Afridi and Saeed Ajmal, may well be crucial if the surface is given to spin.
Team news
Pakistan With few batting replacements, Afridi will desperately hope one of his batsmen other than Butt can kick on, though dropping Mohammad Hafeez and bringing in Khalid Latif may be an option.
Squad from Shahid Afridi (C), Khalid Latif, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Salman Butt, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal (WK), Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal, Hammad Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Sami, Abdur Rehman.
South Africa are still likelier to use pace to unsettle Pakistan's batsmen, the nature of the pitch might warrant a return for Roelof van der Merwe, though he is wicketless thus far in the tournament.
Squad from Graeme Smith (C), Jacques Kallis (VC), Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher (WK), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Rory Kleinveldt, Juan Theron, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe.
Pitch and conditions
There won't be as much bounce or pace as in Barbados, though the express bowlers have still prospered in St Lucia.
Stats and trivia
Match facts
Monday May 10, 2010
Start time 09:30 local (13:30 GMT)
