ISLAMABAD  - Junaid Khan held onto his nerves to guide Misbah-led Pakistan team to first ever historic series victory against South Africa at their home grounds as they inflicted a nail-biting one-run defeat on Proteas in the second One-day International played at Port Elizabeth.
Poor batting by late order batsmen spoiled all the good work done by Ahmed Shahzad, who slammed superb ton, and he was ably supported by Sohaib Maqsood and Umar Akmal, but the series of poor shot selections ensured Pakistan fell short of at least 10 to 15 runs at the end.
Despite being a complete flop with willow, Nasir Jamshed, somehow, managed to occupy the spot in the playing XI. His early dismissal once again showed he lacked basic technique required for an opener. Like past M Hafeez once gifted his wicket to his nemeses Dayle Steyn, who is probably one of the most luckiest bowlers on earth, as it was not his extraordinary bowling but poor and casual approach of Pakistani batsmen especially Hafeez, who now lost his wicket against Steyn on 15 occasions out of last 22 ODI innings which itself speaks volumes about Hafeez's inefficiency to bat against Steyn.
Afridi did not commit a silly mistake for the first time in his long career, he was probably giving catch practice to slip cordon, despite being fully aware of the fact that a fielder was very much placed in the slips.  Pakistani batsmen, who were scared to face Steyn, should have at least carefully witnessed the batting of new Pakistan sensation Bilalwal Bhatti, who hit three boundaries in one over of Steyn which is enough to prove Steyn is easy to play. If Bilawal could play him with a lot of authority, then why other so-called super stars couldn’t handle Steyn.
Junaid helped Pakistan in removing Smith earlier. Quinton de Kock almost took away the game from the grasp of green shirts but Afridi then removed him and Pakistan's nemeses Kallis also was removed cheaply. But Hashim Amla and Ab de Villiers's fourth-wicket stand of 110 runs almost took away the game from Pakistan, but the brilliant bowling of Junaid brought back Pakistan into contention, as he first removed dangerous De Villiers and then took the scalp of Duminy to all but end the South African hopes of leveling the series.  Juniad was under tremendous pressure from different quarters, who were questioning his selection in the team, but the critics don’t realise a simple fact that it was not Junaid's fault, as he was not utilized properly by the skippers. As soon as he was given the responsibility of bowling with the new ball, he delivered in both the matches.
Junaid shut all his critics mouth's with the sensational last over, in which he removed the big hitting Duminy and then not allowed Miller to score only eight runs of the last four deliveries, restricting such hard-hitters to only seven runs in the last over is by all means an exceptional performance.  Now Pakistan has achieved the first task of winning first-ever bilateral One-day series against South Africa after a long wait of 22 years, and now the green shirts must continue to pile pressure on Proteas and not let them off the hook. The team management should replace Nasir Jamshed and if possible Hafeez as well, but if not then at least Nasir should be dropped for the third and last ODI to ensure a chance of inflicting first-ever whitewash on South Afirca, which is hard but very much possible.