Pakistan v South Africa, 2nd ODI, Lahore
Rehman in as Pakistan bat
Cricinfo staff
October 20, 2007
Toss Pakistan chose to bat v South Africa
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Shoaib Malik did his side a huge favour by winning his first toss of the series and expectedly chose to bat in the second ODI against South Africa at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
South Africa lead the series 1-0 after a 45-run win in the first ODI and to no great surprise announced an unchanged team. They played the near-perfect first match and as a bonus, Makhaya Ntini was back to somewhere near his bouncy best.
Pakistan make one change to the team that looked so unbalanced on Thursday, dropping the non-performing Mohammad Hafeez and bringing in Abdur Rehman, the left-arm spinner.
Their attack still looks more likely to contain than to blast out, though batting first on what appears a typical, run-filled ODI surface might help them out. Kamran Akmal, in solid form with the bat, will open and Pakistan will hope that move brings some stability to a top order that was already gone within ten overs in the first match.
Security around the stadium has been beefed up following the suicide attacks in Karachi that killed nearly 140 people on Thursday night. The tour was in some doubt before a meeting between security officials and the respective boards resulted in the decision to continue the tour as per schedule.
The security is unlikely to prevent a full house again at the stadium and they will hope that Pakistan can lift themselves finally out of the slump that has held them in this series.
Pakistan 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Shoaib Malik (capt), 6 Misbah-ul-Haq, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Abdur Rehman, 10 Rao Iftikhar Anjum, 11 Umar Gul.
South Africa 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Graeme Smith (capt), 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Justin Kemp, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 Albie Morkel, 9 Johan Botha, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Charl Langeveldt.

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