SA vs PAK 2024/25, SA vs PAK 2nd Test Match Preview

general overview

Ironically, the attempt to give context to this Test series may have eliminated some from this Test match, especially with regards to South Africa. The hosts have already qualified for the World Test Championship final after beating Pakistan by two wickets in Centurion and, as such, do not necessarily have a bigger picture to play for. However, they have won eight consecutive Test matches at home against Pakistan and have never won a home series against these opponents, and in that bilateral context, there is still plenty to play for.

In the days since South Africa qualified, there has been some attention towards the perceived softer nature of their draw en route to the World Test Championship, something for which their coach Shukri Conrad “did not apologize”. But with no test cricket between this Test and the WTC final, South Africa will want to storm into the final in style and extend a winning streak that already stretches to six games.

Pakistan’s WTC hopes were long gone, but they need to break the habit of letting winning positions slip away, a habit in this particular cycle. As a result, they have lost seven of the last nine Tests and the last eight in South Africa. Centurion was the closest they came to breaking that voodoo, at one point two wickets away from a shock victory with South Africa still 49 runs from victory. But, as has happened too often in Pakistan, they struggled to get their tail on the ball and saw another slip through their fingers.

Newlands could be said to play to his strengths a little more as he lacks the fast pace that South Africa possesses. It is a surface that both captains hope will give a little more spin than Centurion, and should return to its natural characteristics after a freak test last year against India that ended in a day and a half. Both sides are expected to field a spinner, while Pakistan’s seam and swing bowlers may find more joy, especially in the early stages of the Test before the surface flattens out. With just two Test wins in South Africa in three decades of playing here, one win here, and a drawn series, it will go down as the most impressive away Test series result in years.

Form Guide (last five matches completed, most recent first)

South Africa: WWWWW

Pakistan: LWWLL

In the spotlight

With spin likely to play a bigger role in Newlands than Centurion, Keshav Maharaj returns to the side. But for all of Newlands’ supposed adaptation to slower bowling, the orthodox left-arm spinner has a surprisingly indifferent record in Cape Town, managing just 9 wickets in 6 matches at an average of over 52. That’s almost the double its average of 30.44 in the South. Africa at large, and Maharaj returns from an adductor strain that ruled him out of the ODI series. Whether he can begin to change his record at Newlands may be an intriguing plot point as the trial unfolds.

It is not a classic era for openers in Test cricket, and particularly not for Pakistani openers. Until the final Test, they had not produced a 15-plus partnership all year, but they offered faint glimpses of changing that with the new pairing of Saim Ayub and Shan Masood, at 36 and 49. But neither of the former managed to work out. in either innings, something Masood mentioned as a point of frustration at Centurion. Against the kind of world-class bowling attack South Africa possess at home, runs to the first wicket aren’t exactly easy, but Pakistan desperately need them anyway.

team news

South Africa have announced the changes after the first Test, with Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder and debutant fast bowler Kwena Maphaka coming into the team. Opener Tony de Zorzi has a thigh strain, while fast bowler Corbin Bosch and Dane Paterson also drop to the bench.

South Africa: Ryan Rickleton 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Wiaan Mulder (captain), 4 Tristan Stubbs 5 Temba Bavuma (captain) 6 David Bedingham, 7 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Keshav Maharaj 10 Kagiso Rabada 11 Kwena Maphaka

Pakistan are yet to name an XI, unsure whether to play Noman Ali or simply settle for Salman Ali Agha as the lead spinner.

Pakistan: 1 Shan Masood (captain) 2 Saim Ayub 3 Babar Azam 4 Kamran Ghulam 5 Saud Shakeel 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 7 Salman Ali Agha 8 Aamer Jamal/Noman Ali 9 Naseem Shah 10 Mohammad Abbas 11 Khurram Shahzad

Field and conditions

“I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about the wicket,” Temba Bavuma joked during the press conference after the ultra-short Test here last year. However, it has less grass than Centurion and will have effects later in the test.

Statistics and curiosities

Keshav Maharaj is seven wickets away from becoming the first South African spinner to take 200 Test wickets.

Among the current batsmen in the Pakistan team, none have truly imperious records in South Africa. Babar Azam’s 275 at 34.37 makes him the most prolific, while no active Pakistani has a hundred in this country.

Quotes

“The series is still in play. So, as much as we have ticked the box of being in the final, we would still like to be clinical in the series. We are aiming for two to zero. Our focus, our motivation is still there. I think that also as a team, as much as we won last week, we accepted that we were not at our best, betting and bowling. So, in terms of improving in those areas, we would like to do so. last week”.
south african captain Temba Bavuma feels that there is still a lot to improve on his part

Danyal Rasool is Pakistan correspondent for Pak Gazette. @danny61000