Pakistan once again, was brutally exposed on a pitch that had lateral movement coupled with bounce. It happened at Kingsmead in the first match of the series and many pundits believed it could not happen again. Clearly, their ability to change their technique is now in question.

The second match at St Georges Park in Port Elizabeth saw South Africa unable to adapt their technique to conditions not dissimilar to the subcontinent. Elahi and Razzaq are two players that have loads of talent but unfortunately fiddle outside the off stump far too much when there is movement off the track.

I guess the question to ask is, can Pybus and his team of coaches come up with a strategy to counteract their weakness. There are various options available to them but the process needs to start immediately due a time constraint. One cannot expect a player to change something overnight, feel comfortable with it and then still be consistently successful at the same time. The first step is for the Pakistan batsmen to recognize that they do have techniques not tailor-made for South African conditions. To admit this is once again a process. The next vital step is practice the "new batting strategy" under conditions that will be found more often than not in South Africa.

What are the technical problems?

All fast bowlers attempt to bowl in the channel outside or on off-stump and if a batsman is unsure where his off-stump is, he will play at deliveries that could be left alone. Opening the face of the bat to angle the ball down to the third man region is never a good idea when there are two slips in place and the ball cannot be judged perfectly due to seam movement and bounce off the pitch. A full face of the bat must be presented more often than not. In the subcontinent it is a "bread and butter" shot.

Another inherent problem is committing onto the front foot too early and thereby closing down the option to play off the back-foot. Afridi clearly falls into this category. Picking the correct length takes years of practice and programming the muscles to react is again not an easy thing to do. It also impacts on the batsman's ability to rotate the strike and release pressure.

How much time is really left?

With two proper matches still to be played in the series, time is still on their side. The fact that Pakistan can go home, prepare a pitch to hone their skill on and then come back to challenge for the World Cup makes them a real threat to others in the mix. However, after a tour players like to get home and take some time off to recharge. The Test matches coming at the end of the tour will tire them out. If it were up to me, I would play my one-day team for the two Tests as well and see it as part of the development process. New players added for the Tests will have similar problems and therefore there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The one single positive issue that Pakistan should keep in mind is that one of the semi final matches of the World Cup is to be played at St Georges Park and that is where they hammered South Africa. This will also be of great concern to the Proteas, as they also know that changing the nature of a pitch is also not an overnight thing!

This series is still wide open and players like Wasim, Shoaib, Waqar and Inzi can turn any match or series around in the blink of an eye.

© Viva Cricket