ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA

At Rawalpindi, February 25. South Africa won by 78 runs. Toss: South Africa.

South Africa maintained the dominance they established over England in their one-day series in January. Though no one played a major innings, they compiled a decent score of 230, briefly interrupted by rain at 133 for three. England's fielding did improve a little, on a better surface than Peshawar, but they could hardly expect to outshine the South Africans in that department. Their carelessness contributed to their own downfall, however - Stewart was run out when he would have been home in comfort had he taken the elementary precaution of running his bat in ahead of him; later, DeFreitas remembered to extend his bat, but forgot to ground it and was also run out. The innings looked shaky from its fourth ball, when Atherton, resuming the opener's job, edged to the keeper. England struggled to get the ball away and, despite 46 from Thorpe, the top score of the match, were bowled out inside 45 overs for 152. It was exactly the same total as that made by the United Arab Emirates against South Africa nine days earlier. At the press conference, Atherton added to England's local unpopularity by referring to a Pakistani journalist as a buffoon. He apologised next day.

Man of the Match: J. N. Rhodes.