The road to redemption, after all the treachery that has gone before, will surely be long and hard. However South Africa’s dramatic victory here tonight will go a long way towards healing the scars. Looking down the barrel of defeat after an opening partnership of 101 they fought bravely back tonight to eventually beat Pakistan by 18 runs at Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

For much of the match they had looked a shadow of their normal self. The top order had scored runs, but at a rate that appeared too sluggish. Whilst they bowled much tighter than they had in Galle, they lacked penetration and the fire in the belly, which normally burns so fiercely, had appeared to have been doused by the flamboyant stroke-play of Pakistan’s 19 year old opener.

That fire was re-ignited by Lance Klusner. Brought on as a fifth change bowler he may well lack the pace of his he partners but he made up for it with raw aggression and purpose. He did not bowl bouncers, nor bone crushing deliveries, but he was gun barrel straight and clearly ruffled the young Imran Nazir (80).

Finally, in his forth over and the 30th of the innings, he got his man. Imran Nazir stood up and tried to re-exert his dominance by thrashing Klusner through the covers. He only succeeded in dragging the ball on to his stumps and by doing so paved the way for a South African victory.

Like when the Sri Lankan’s dismissed Gary Kirsten in Galle, you could almost see the hope and belief coming flooding back into the player’s faces.

The dismissal of Nazir triggered a collapse in which they lost three precious top order wickets for just 10 runs, crumbling from an apparently impregnable 144-1 to 154-5. Azhar Mahmood and Inzamann-ul-Haq were both caught behind off Klusner, Inzamann spectacularly so by Mark Boucher, who has now become the fastest wicket-keeper to reach 100 dismissals in both test matches and one day internationals. Yousef Youhana was then tamely bowled behind his legs as he tried to sweep Boje.

Pakistan were never likely to recover, especially without their talisman, Wasim Akram, who has returned to Lahore. Moin Khan was adjudged LBW four overs later when Pollock re-entered the attack and Abdur Razzaq suffered a similar fate, this time to Boje, who spun the ball prodigiously towards the end and picked up 4 wickets.

Whilst Younis Khan (38*) remain undefeated to the end, he lacked the necessary support at the other end as the wickets quickly pushed the run rate above 6 an over. Waqar Younis (3) was caught in the deep whilst trying to sweep Boje and Mustaq Ahmed (2)was brilliantly caught by a diving Jonty Rhodes at short short extra cover.

Earlier in the day the Shaun Pollock had won the toss and elected to bat first. For the second match in succession the openers rallied to the captains cause and put on 64 for the first at nearly five runs per over before Abdur Razzaq trapped Andrew Hall (27) LBW.

After the fall of the first wicket the runs slowed as Jacques Kallis (83) and Gary Kirsten (52) found it harder to work the bowlers into the gaps. Kirsten was the quicker of the two, adept at placing the ball into the gaps, he had scored 52 from 77 deliveries before trying to hit Mustaq Ahmed over the top and being caught at long off.

The arrival of Darrel Cullinan (38) at the crease increased impetus to the innings, putting on 61 with Kallis in just 13 overs. When he was run-out after some fleet footed work on the boundary by Azhar Mahmood, it looked as though South Africa might fall short of a competitive target.

In the event their final score of 241 proved enough despite the performance of the Pakistan openers who started cautiously before taking the attack to the South African pace bowlers. Mornantau Hayaward once again suffering in the early overs, although he came back well in the later part of an expensive spell.

Speaking afterwards Shaun Pollock was clearly relieved: “We weren’t satisfied with our performance against Sri Lanka so it was nice to come and put in a good performance here, we can still improve in a few areas but it is definitely something from which we can work from.”

“Imran Nazir batted very well up front when the ball was new but we knew from the batting that as the ball got a little older, it held up a little bit and was a more difficult to score off. We always felt that if we could keep control then we would be able to pull them back later and in the end it worked.”

Pakistan will now face a tough fight to qualify for the final and are desperately in need of a victory tomorrow against Sri Lanka. The same wicket is to be used tomorrow and the prospect of facing of Mutiah Muralitharan on it, is sure to be daunting.

© CricInfo