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Proteas bowlers foil Pakistan

Johanneburg - Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore expressed his immense frustration at his team's recent batting failures against South Africa, when his side arrived in the country on Sunday for two T20 internationals and three ODIs.

Pakistan have just finished hosting South Africa in the United Arab Emirates, with the Proteas drawing the test series 1-1, but winning the ODIs 4-1 and the T20s 2-0.

Pakistan won the first test, but were then bowled out for just 99 on the first day of the second test on their way to losing by an innings.

There were similar batting collapses in the ODI series.

In the T20s, Whatmore's team could score only 98 for nine and 144 for nine, losing their last six wickets for 43 runs to lose by six runs on Friday night.

"From really strong positions of victory, we've managed to lose games, like in the last T20, and it's been very frustrating," Whatmore said at the Wanderers on Sunday.

"We're painfully aware that we need to keep our heads for longer and finish games; complete the good starts we've had."

The Pakistan team has been criticised for playing up to seven bowlers at times, thus weakening their batting, but Whatmore said he would still be looking to employ bowlers who can bat on their second visit to South Africa this year.

"I'd like more bowlers who can bat, most teams like to bat all the way down these days," he said.

"We may bring in a couple of new boys to bolster the batting, though."

Pakistan are without Goliath-sized paceman Mohammad Irfan, who is staying over in Dubai for treatment in the hope that his hip injury will heal in time for him to play in the series against Sri Lanka next month.

"We had been talking about managing Irfan, but this injury has now forced our hand," Whatmore said.

Pakistan T20 captain Mohammed Hafeez said there were some advantages to playing South Africa so often, with the teams having already met in five tests, 12 ODIs and four T20 internationals in the last year.

"We are both very competitive with each other, but we try and play in the right spirit," Hafeez said.

"When you are playing a team for a long time, you get to know each other very well. You feel comfortable playing them and it's a positive because you can make plans better.

"The last time we came here [January to March], we put up a good show in the shorter formats. We won the T20s 1-0 and the ODIs were on a tie but South Africa were able to win the last one."

The series in South Africa starts on Wednesday with a T20 match at the Wanderers.

PAKISTAN SQUAD: Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Tanveer, Anwar Ali, Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Nasir Jamshed, Asad Shafiq, Bilawal Bhatti.

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