Pakistan 211 and 212 for 8 (Shakeel 66*, Babar 50, Jansen 5-42, Rabada 2-68) lead South Africa 301 for 122 runs
Marco Jansen’s five-wicket haul helped South Africa tighten their hold on the first Test with three wickets in the afternoon, as Pakistan squandered a promising start after a rain delay wiped out the morning session. Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel scored 79 for the fourth wicket, and Babar reached his first Test half-century in two years, but holed out for a third immediately afterwards. Mohammad Rizwan was bowled down leg and Pakistan collapsed around Shakeel’s unbeaten 66, reaching tea 122 ahead with just two wickets in hand.
Persistent rain saw play begin an hour after the lunch break concluded, and Pakistan began by taking advantage of a bowling effort that was nowhere near their best. Shakeel and Babar each worked Kagiso Rabada for four in the third over, and the runs flowed for the next half hour. Twenty-three came out of the next three, and although Babar still found himself beaten at times, he was also finding the opportune moment that in the past had often been a precursor to a big score.
Corbin Bosch found out when he missed his boundary twice and Babar helped himself to two boundaries, before a clip in the sheets brought up the much-awaited half-century, his first in 20 innings. But he squandered it in disappointing fashion, failing to overcome a short, deflected shot from Jansen, and Bosch barely had to move to send a devastated Babar on his way.
Jansen was finding the wickets that escaped him in the first innings, with Rizwan and Salman Agha falling cheaply. A brief tussle between Shakeel and Aamer Jamal once again gave the impression that Pakistan would go into tea six down, before Jamal bowled a tame Dane Paterson bouncer straight to deep mid-wicket, and Naseem kindly tucked Rabada in. the slips.
It was the exclamation point of a session that, for South Africa, had begun, under gray clouds, much less brilliantly.
