Pakistan win toss opt to field against South Africa in first ODI

BLOEMFONTEIN: Misbah-ul-Haq winning the toss chose to put South Africa in on a sunny, breezy morning in the first one-day international (ODI) here.

Pakistan included Asad Shafiq and two all-rounders in Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi. Mohammad Irfan missed out with Umar Gul and Junaid Khan the two senior seamers.

AB de Villiers did not mind the decision because he hoped South Africa's batting could do a job upfront. The line-up was as expected with Colin Ingram and Farhaan Behardien both keeping their places. Abbott replaced Morne Morkel who didn't recover from the left hamstring strain that kept him out of the third Test. That left South Africa without Morkel and Dale Steyn - who is still in Los Angeles with his girlfriend - and a somewhat inexperienced bowling attack. Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Rory Kleinveldt and Ryan McLaren made up the pace attack, along with Abbott.

Pakistan: 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Mohammed Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Shoaib Malik, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Junaid Khan

South Africa: 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Colin Ingram 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 Faf du Plessis, 6 Farhaan Behardien, 7 Ryan McLaren, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Rory Kleinvedlt, 10 Kyle Abbott, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe