South Africa were dominated by Pakistan in the 1st Test in Karachi, losing the match by 7 wickets in the second session on Day 4, writes Khalid Mohidin.
Pakistan’s plan worked perfectly on Day 4. They removed the nightwatchman Keshav Maharaj and Quinton de Kock early, followed by George Linde just under an hour and a half in.
The onus was now on Temba Bavuma to pull something special out of the hat, supported by the tail who all needed to play the games of their lives to save the Test match.
Into the tail and Bavuma never took responsibility when he needed to farm the strike, he allowed both Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada to face 19 balls too many, as the Proteas were reduced to 242-9.
Bavuma was impressive for his 40 and it was unfortunate that specialist batters couldn’t fight things out with him to reach the desired 200-plus total.
Props must be given to the Pakistan bowlers for bamboozling majority of the Proteas batters, but it hasn’t been an unfamiliar batting performance for the South Africans in the subcontinent.
Nauman Ali (5-35) in particular was exquisite. He took a five-for on debut to wrap up the Proteas batters, taking Bavuma’s wicket after a well-fought 40 off 93 balls.
Pakistan needed 88 runs to win the match and go 1-0 up in the series. They wrapped up the game in session two, with a day and a half left in the match.
After an hour lunch session, due to Friday Prayers, Pakistan needed to chase down 66 runs to win with 10 wickets in hand.
Nortje struck twice in the opening over. The first wicket came on the first ball after lunch, his pace causing Abid Ali to chop the ball onto his stumps. His second wicket saw Imran Butt drive at a wide delivery and nick it to the keeper on the last ball of the over.
Azhar Ali (31 off 47 balls) and Babar Azam chased down most of the total with ease. But two runs from victory, Keshav Maharaj tapped Babar Azam (30 off 39 balls) lbw taking his wicket for the second time in the series.
The hero of Pakistan’s first innings Fawad Alam sealed the 7-wicket win with a four.
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