Pakistan faced disappointment as the side kicked off the first innings of the second and last Test match against South Africa in the sweltering heat of Newlands on Saturday as they lost back-to-back three wickets including wicket of captain Shan Masood.
Reeling from the onslaught of South African batters, Pakistan’s skipper fell to to Rabada in the first over of the innings. Kamran Ghulam followed him in the sixth over putting Green Shirts in danger with a score of 18-2.
Rabada struck again on the fourth ball of the ninth over and dismissed Saud Shakeel on a duck.
All the while, ace batter Babar Azam remained steady on the pitch as he got to a score of 34 off 77 balls. He was paired with wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan (nine not-out) and together the duo saved Pakistan from further loss of wickets and wrapped up the play on Day 2 at 64/3.
The side will kick off Day 3 play’s tomorrow with trail of 551 runs.
Earlier in South Africa’s first inning, makeshift opener Ryan Rickelton’s 259 powered South Africa to score of 615.
Pakistan’s bowling attack was left bamboozled from the onslaught of the South African batters with Kyle Verreynne also scoring a ton from just 147 balls.
Rickelton, who was elevated to the opening role following an injury to Tony de Zorzi, smashed a whooping score of 259 and built a partnership of 148 with Verreynne before he got out.
The makeshift opener was also dismissed a few overs later as Mir Hamza’s pace brought an end to a magnificent inning.
With the powerhouse duo dismissed, Pakistan’s pacers were smacked all over the park by Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj with scores of 62 from 54 and 40 from just 35 deliveries respectively.
Pacer and tail-ender Kagiso Rabada remained not out with six runs as the home side packed up the innings at a score of 615-10.
Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas and Salman Agha took three wickets each with Mir Hamza and Khurram Shahzad dismissing two South African batters each.
Earlier, Rickelton, who scored his maiden Test century against Sri Lanka last month, resumed in the morning session on 176 and continued where he left off in seeing off Pakistan’s second new ball, though Verreynne did the bulk of the scoring.
The tourists removed Rickelton’s overnight partner David Bedingham for five as the latter became wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan’s fifth victim of the innings, this time off the bowling of Mohammad Abbas (2-70) with a poor shot outside off-stump.
