Honours even as rain ends opening day

Rain dominated the final session of play on day one of the second test between the Proteas and Pakistan at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on Thursday, leaving the hosts on 145/3 and the match evenly poised going into Friday’s day two.

Pakistan had just begun wresting back control of the match through Babar Azam and Fawad Alam as their unbeaten partnership of 123 took them comfortably to tea after they had been reduced to 22/3 during the morning session.

However, rain then came down during the tea break, with the umpires finally calling play for the day after a final check shortly after 1.30pm CAT (SA, GMT+2), with play set to resume at 6.45am on Friday.

Pakistan will hope to continue their revival through the impressive stand between the aggressive Azam, on 77 off 125 balls with 12 boundaries struck nicely all around the ground, and Alam’s more measured 42 off 138 balls (5x4) that had rescued them from a perilous position early in the day.

The pair had resumed Pakistan’s innings on 63/3 after lunch and took their side past 100 while Azam reached his half-century off the same ball, a flicked boundary off Wiaan Mulder at the start of the 45th over.

The two then continued to tea without much trouble, despite the toil of Proteas spin wizard Keshav Maharaj who has incredibly bowled 25 of the teams 58 overs so far, picking up 2/51 in the process.

'BALL STICKS IN THE WICKET'

Maharaj praised Azam and Alam for their resolute batting.

"With the newish ball and moisture, the ball sort of sticks in the wicket a little bit but the turn was minimised substantially

In the morning session, it was a superb spell of bowling from Maharaj that gave his side the early edge before Azam and Alam took centre stage.

Maharaj was introduced into the attack early, after just seven overs shared between pace spearheads Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, and looked to make an immediate impact as he found grip and turn with his first delivery, with the ball catching the edge of opener Imran Butt’s bat and flying to slip where Temba Bavuma put down a regulation chance.

However, Butt (15) was unable to take advantage of the let-off, adding just two runs to his score before Maharaj got some more bite and turn to find the edge once again, with keeper Quinton de Kock making no mistake behind the stumps to take the catch, leaving Pakistan on 21/1 in the 12th over.

SUPERB CATCH

In his next over Maharaj then got one to skid on and trap Azhar Ali dead in front for a ninth ball duck, giving the umpire an easy decision to send the batsman on his way and by the end of the over Maharaj had brilliant figures of four overs, three maidens, two wickets for one run.

In the following over Nortje, who had looked much more threatening since changing ends, got one to angle in at opener Abid Ali (6) catching the inside edge of his bat with the ball then flicking off his hip to Aiden Markram at short leg, who took a superb one-handed catch diving to his right, as Pakistan were reduced to 22/3.

At that stage they had lost three wickets for just one run and were in a lot of trouble, however, Azam and Alam then combined to guide them safely to lunch.

Some good news for the Proteas was announced with spinner George Linde expected to play a part in the rest of the match after he went off the field injured during the first session after being hit on the little finger of his bowling hand trying to field the ball off his own bowling in the 23rd over, with it being confirmed after X-rays that there was no fracture and he would be managed carefully from here on out.

PAKISTAN: Imran Butt, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (capt), Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Yasir Shah, Nauman Ali, Shaheen Afridi

SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock (capt & wk), Temba Bavuma, Wiaan Mulder, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje