Marco Jansen Five-wicket haul helped South Africa tighten their control in the first Test with three wickets in the afternoon as Pakistan squandered a promising start following a rain delay that wiped out the morning session. After a weather delay ruined the morning session, Pakistan wasted a good start in the first Test, losing three wickets in the afternoon as Marco Jansen’s five-wicket haul helped South Africa tighten their dominance.
After Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel put on 79 for the fourth wicket, Babar reached his first half-century in Test cricket in two years, but he immediately holed out to deep third. After squeezing Mohammad Rizwan in the last leg, Pakistan collapsed around Shakeel’s undefeated 66, leading 122 at tea with two wickets remaining.
The game started an hour after lunch ended due to persistent rain, and Pakistan started by exploiting a bowling performance that was far from its best. In the third over, Kagiso Rabada was dismissed for four runs each by Shakeel and Babar, and the runs continued to pour in for the next thirty minutes. Babar was still getting beaten occasionally, but he was also finding the timing that used to be so frequently a sign of a large score. Twenty-three came off the next three.
After Babar helped himself to two boundaries and Corbin Bosch missed his line twice, the long-awaited half-century—his first in 20 innings—was reached after a clip into the covers. Bosch hardly had to move to send a distraught Babar on his way, but he threw it away disappointingly after failing to get on top of a short and wide one from Jansen.
Rizwan and Salman Agha fell easily as Jansen found the wickets that had escaped him in the first innings. Pakistan appeared to be six down after a brief stand between Shakeel and Aamer Jamal. However, Jamal then hit a poor Dane Paterson bouncer straight to deep midwicket, and Naseem generously nicked Rabada into the slips.
It was the climax to a session that had started rather less brilliantly for South Africa under overcast skies.
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