Port Elizabeth, South Africa: After strangely deciding to drop its most successful limited-overs bowler this year, South Africa has slipped suddenly from a resounding 4-1 away win over Pakistan to the prospect of losing a one-day series against the same team for the first time.
The 23-run defeat in the opening match of a three-game return contest in South Africa on Sunday left the inconsistent Proteas under pressure at home in a must-win second one-dayer on Wednesday -- and probably regretting the move to leave Ryan McLaren out of the series-opener.
South Africa's problem was finding a place for veteran allrounder Jacques Kallis, who returned for his first one-day international in nearly two years. Although Kallis returned seamlessly with two wickets and a half century in his first ODI since February 2012, South Africa's overall performance was upset without McLaren.
"I don't think there was anything wrong with the team selection in the previous game, really." South Africa captain AB de Villiers said on Tuesday, backing the move to drop McLaren despite insistence from sections of the country's media that McLaren should have played. "It was definitely a good enough team to beat Pakistan."
However, it was Pakistan which made history on its short tour by winning its first ODI at Cape Town's Newlands while South Africa tinkered with its bowling attack by bringing in Kallis and regular test seamer Vernon Philander at the expense of McLaren, who has led South Africa's limited-overs wicket-takers in 2013.
De Villiers did concede it was "a tough decision" to leave McLaren out and the allrounder was expected to be among the "one or two" changes to the team the skipper said were likely for the pressure game at St. George's Park.
The loss at Newlands underlined South Africa's ongoing struggle for consistency in team selection and performance in limited-overs cricket despite it being the top-ranked test team.
"It'll mean everything to us (to win the series). It's never easy to come from behind," de Villiers said.
In contrast, Pakistan has made progress after agreeing to the short-notice limited-overs tour, winning a T20 and an ODI at Newlands and discovering promising allrounders Bilawal Bhatti and Anwar Ali in the process. On their ODI debuts, the pair combined for a game-changing 74-run partnership for the eighth wicket at Newlands and shared five crucial wickets in South Africa's reply.
"Bhatti is definitely skilful, there's no doubt about it," de Villiers said. "Even myself, I underestimated him a bit in the second T20 game. ... He bowled like 12 perfect yorkers in a row. You've got to have skill to do that."
