KARACHI:No one would have thought that Pakistan would come out to bat on day two at 33-4 after ending day one on a dismal note and then not be rolled over by the South Africa bowling attack. However, this is what exactly happened.
The four wickets lost by Pakistan at the end of day one were followed by only four more on the entire day two as Men in Green batsmen all contributed to hosts’ cause as they ended day two with a significant 88 runs lead.Top of the list is left-handed, unorthodox batsman Fawad Alam, who once again proved he should’ve been brought into the five-day side earlier.Fawad’s 109 off 245 deliveries where he hit nine boundaries and two sixes, one of the maximum taking him to the deserved century, was a tale of grit and perseverance.
The left-handed batsman grinded it out for 353 minutes in the middle maintaining a strike rate of 44.49.However, one cannot deny the roles Azhar Ali, Muhammad Rizwan and Faheem Ashraf played in taking Pakistan to the South African first innings score and then 88 runs beyond it.Azhar opened day two with Fawad and scored 51 off 151 deliveries before he was caught behind off Maharaj.Rizwan then joined Fawad and played a 33-run counter-attacking cameo where he scored 24 runs off boundaries, but Ngidi was too good for him when the Proteas pacer sent a short one in and Rizwan edged it to Faf du Plessis at the first slip.
Fawad was then joined by Faheem as the latter took settled in first and then scored a fifty (64 runs off 84 balls) before being bowled by Nortje.Pakistan’s cause was also helped by a dropped catch where Faheem was put down on one by Quinton de Kock. Meanwhile, Maharaj also could have gotten another wicket but he overstepped giving Pakistani batsman a lifeline.
While South Africa were happy to have ended day one strongly, they would not be happy to have given that dominant position away on day two. However, the unhappiest player out of all the South Africans would be Kagiso Rabada. He had a whole day to bag his 200th Test wicket and he bowled pretty tight lines to Pakistani batsmen, but the right-arm pacer was unlucky to have still ended the day on one wicket less than 200.
One of the main reasons why Pakistan won all the sessions on day two can be brought down to one fact that the batsmen played to their strengths and didn’t poke at deliveries which were meant to be left untouched.One of the secrets of success that can be extracted from Fawad’s batting is that he played more than double the balls in comparison to the runs he scores, however, whenever the opportunity of a boundary or a single came, he didn’t miss it.
The Karachi pitch was a heaven for Pakistan spinners Yasir Shah and Nauman Ali even on day one, and with the pitch deteriorating, the match is strongly poised in the hosts’ favour if they can add more runs to their lead and then get South Africa in to bat in the middle or end of day three.
In all sincerity, the Pakistani batsmen delivered on day two in complete opposition to the expectations from them and now the bowlers will be feeling confident and rested to dismiss South Africa’s eleven batsmen in the second innings. It is still anyone’s match, but if bets are being made, put your money on Pakistan.
