Total Recall: Pakistan vs South Africa 2007/08

Cricket South Africa has just announced a tour of Pakistan in the new year. The proteas last toured Pakistan in 2007 and displayed an epic performance. Let’s walk down memory lane and revisit the last tour of Pakistan, writes Ravi Reddy.

The year was 2007. The first iPhone was released. Mohammed Asif was not in jail and Manchester United were Premier League champions.

Seems like an obscure alternative reality. The last time South Africa played in Rawalpindi Graeme Smith was captain, Jacques Kallis was the best player in the world and the Mighty Hash started blossoming in the middle order.

Seems like aeons ago and South Africa are more than a stone throw away from their former glory.

South Africa were invited to play in a 2 Test match series, followed by a 5-match ODI series in Pakistan. The Test series will also mark Inzamam ul Haq’s last match for Pakistan (8,830 runs @ 49.60, 25x100s).

For those of you who would like to take a stroll down memory lane, below is a breakdown of the 2007 squads:

The player of Test series was Jacques Kallis who scored 421 runs (2x100s) with Younis Khan as a close second with 265 runs in the series.

Paul Harris, the resident slow left-arm bowler at the time was the leading wicket-taker with 12 test wickets (1×5 wicket haul). Harris took the wicket of the aggressive Kamran Akmal on in both innings.

However, It was the ODI series that rendered the most excitement. South Africa were trailing 2-1 after the first 3 matches. It took incredible efforts from Graeme Smith and Makhaya Ntini to steer the series in South Africa’s favour.

Smith accumulated over 220 ODI runs and Ntini took 12 ODI wickets (2×4 wicket hauls).

Check out the highlights below of the 2nd Test in Lahore: