Web desk: Pakistan ended day 1 of the Second Test Match in a strong position against South Africa. South African bowlers fought back late in the day to give themselves a chance of bowling Pakistan out under 350, but they will rue the missed chances in the field.
Shan Masood won a crucial toss and opted to bat first in Rawalpindi. Pakistan has been making spin-friendly pitches in the recent test series, and the Pindi pitch is expected to play the same. It will start to deteriorate as the match progresses, and it will be a nightmare to face the spinners in the fourth innings.
Day 1 on such tracks is the best time to bat, and Pakistan made the most of it. They ended the day on 259 for 5 after fifties from Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafique. The skipper Shan Masood led from the front and scored an impressive 87. Shafique rode his luck and scored 57. He was dropped four times, and once the ball from Marco Jansen grazed the stumps, but the bails didn’t come off.
Babar Azam failed once again. He looked confident in his score of 16 till he got out to a brilliant bit of fielding by Tony de Zorzi at silly mid-off when he caught Babar’s front-foot defensive shot. Muhammad Rizwan fell prey to Rabada with the new ball. Salman Ali Agha and Saud Shakeel took Pakistan to stumps after some nervy moments late in the day.
Saud looked composed, and a lot will depend on him if Pakistan is to score 350. Salman Ali Agha batted beautifully in the first test match, and if he stitches a partnership with Saud, they can even bat South Africa out of the match.
On the other hand, poor captaincy and missed chances cost South Africa majorly. They are known as one of the best fielding sides in the world, but they dropped 6 catches and a stumping on day 1. Secondly, Markram captaincy was really poor. He made a blunder by not throwing the ball to Muthusamy. He only bowled 2 of the first 80 overs.
Remember, he was the one who wreaked havoc against the Pakistani batting lineup in the first test match and took 11 wickets. Maharaj and Harmer bowled well and took 2 wickets each, but things could have turned out different if Muthusamy was trusted with the ball.
As things stand, South Africa are not out of this match. Pindi wicket has played better than Lahore’s. It has not turned that much and hasn’t supported fast bowlers that much either. But it will spin as the match progresses, and South Africa will be batting last on it, so they need to get Pakistan out under 300 in the first innings.
Whereas Pakistan will look to make the most of the friendly batting conditions and score as much in the first innings as possible. And they have an experienced bowling attack in the form of Noman Ali and Sajid Khan which has been bolstered even further with the inclusion of left-arm spinner Asif Afridi.
Hence, it is going to be a riveting state of play on Day 2, where anything can happen. For now, Pakistan have their noses in front, and if they start well tomorrow morning, they may run away with the match.
