Lunch South Africa Route 180 by 5 (Markram 81*, Verreynne 0*) Pakistan 211 for 31 runs
Pakistan opened the day with Naseem and Mohammad Abbas, but apart from Naseem’s opening move, the bowlers did not challenge the batsmen. They were providing enough loose deliveries for the run-scoring to progress without much interruption, and not enough good ones to keep the batsmen on their toes.
Markram quickly reached his half-century and beat Abbas for a couple of boundaries, while Bavuma held his own against Naseem apart from a thick outside edge that found space at the slips. As Khurram Shahzad was not called up for the first 90 minutes, Aamer Jamal finally made the breakthrough by landing the ball at length as he has the ability to take rep after rep. Bavuma pushed out and managed to reach the goalkeeper.
Unlike Pakistan in their first innings, South Africa did not lose many wickets once a partnership was broken. Bedingham was extremely confident and ensured that the momentum was maintained in South Africa. The scoring rate chosen as survival from an lbw review seemed to highlight his flamboyance against Naseem.
However, this also caused his downfall. Naseem pulled his length back and probed outside and Bedingham couldn’t resist a push off the back foot. He got an outside edge at first slip, and Kamran Ghulam made no mistake, giving Pakistan more reward in the session than perhaps their bowling deserved.
