Shoaib Akhtar setup the win over South Africa

Much has been made about Shoaib Akhtar's alleged confrontation with Woolmer on the morning of the second day. The attention is justified, since the stability of the team affects its morale, and obviously, all of us have a vested interest in it. I am waiting to hear more on Shoaib's injury, and about his spat with Woolmer, but I admit I was a bit too quick in assuming something shady might be going on. It's quite possible that there is a cover-up, although its equally likely, that Shoaib's hamstring injury is the result of him not playing enough cricket, and thus not being up to the required fitness level. However, in light of Pakistan's exciting victory over South Africa, I feel too much attention is being given to Shoaib's disciplinary issues, rather than his role in this game. And I just wanted to give credit where I think its due.

It was a sweet victory, extremely satisfying, and well earned with several outstanding performances. Mohammad Asif, Sami and Kaneria deserve a lot of credit for bowling out South Africa within 350 runs in the second innings. Inzamam's century in the first innings playing with just the tail, proved to be match winning, bringing him the 'Man of the Match' award, though in my opinion, deserved it. Akmal and Younis played their part and brought Pakistan home in the end. Shoaib Akhtar's role, however, was significant and relatively speaking, Pakistan didn't win the test match on the 4th day as much as South Africa lost it on the 1st day. And that was due to Shoaib's influence.

Shoaib, like Ganguly with India, arouses extreme passions. You either love him or hate him. There are many amongst us, who are frustrated by his arrogance and lack of discipline. However, his value to the Pakistan team cannot be underestimated. He's done it before and yet again, he was the difference between the two sides in this game. He wasn't in the best of form and it was obvious to see he wasn't that fit. But he bowled intelligently and he blew out South Africa's top order. It was his 11 overs that resulted in their poor first innings total, and as a result set up the Pakistani win. South Africa were under pressure from the word go, and they will be overjoyed to see him injured. Now they can really afford to rest both Ntini and Pollock. They would have not done so if Shoaib was playing the 3rd game. The only other person they have to worry about is Mohammad Asif, and if they play him carefully, they can score off the rest. Shoaib's absence, once again, will be disappointing for his fans and pleasing to his critics, but it will definitely be missed when we battle South Africa again in the third and final test match of this series.

cross-posted at cricket.bloggers.pk