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 control in the first Test with three wickets in the afternoon, while Pakistan squandered a promising start following a rain delay that washed out the morning session. Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel scored 79 for the fourth wicket, with Babar reaching his first Test half-century in two years, but holed out at deep third soon after.
Mohammad Rizwan was smashed down the leg and Pakistan collapsed around Shakeel’s unbeaten 66, going to tea 122 ahead with only two wickets in hand.
Persistent rain saw the match start an hour after the lunch break had ended and Pakistan began by exploiting a bowling effort that was not even close to its best. Shakeel and Babar both took away Kagiso Rabada for four in the third over, and the runs continued for the next half-hour.
Twenty-three came from the next three, and although Babar still found himself beaten a couple of times, he was also finding the timing that was so often a precursor to a big score in the past.
Corbin Bosch found this out when he missed his line twice and Babar helped himself to two boundaries before a clip in the covers brought the long-awaited half-century, his first in 20 innings. But he threw it away disappointingly, failing to clear a short and wide by Jansen, Bosch barely having to move to send a devastated Babar on his way.
Jansen was finding the wickets that had eluded him in the first innings, with Rizwan and Salman Agha falling cheaply. A brief clash between Shakeel and Aamer Jamal once again gave the impression that Pakistan would go to tea with six down, before Jamal bowled a tame Danish Paterson bouncer straight to deep midwicket, and Naseem helped slide Rabada into the slips.
It was the exclamation point of a session that, for South Africa, had begun, under grey clouds, far less brightly.
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