South Africa on defensive in second Pakistan Test match

High-flying South Africa were put to the ground by the Pakistani bowlers on the first day of the second Test match being played at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Batting first after winning the toss, the South African openers gave their team a solid start but just before the lunch they were hit by an earthquake as they lost three quick wickets.

Aiden Markram went for 17 runs, Wiaan Mulder scored five runs and Tristan Stubbs did not disturb the score at all and went out for a duck.

A few overs after lunch, South Africa have scored 90 runs by losing three wickets. Unbeaten batsmen at the crease were opener Ryan Rickelton at 56 and captain Temba Bavuma at 13.

For Pakistan, Mohammad Abbas, Khurram Shahzad and Salman Agha claimed once wicket each.

Earlier,  South African captain Buvama won the toss and decided to bat first.

As Pakistan is looking to set the record straight and draw the series, they have made one change to their team replacing fast bowler Naseem Shah with another quickie Mir Hamza. South Africa also made three changes to their team.

Captain Shan Masood acknowledged the difficulty in striking the right balance for the side. “We’d like to have one final look at the pitch,” he said during a pre-match press conference, adding “It looks a bit different, with less grass cover, but we want to take our time and assess what the best possible XI is.”

Shan Masood said he wants his side to be “ruthless” as they take the field against South Africa for the second and final Test match. 

Pakistan are 1-0 down in the two-match series after losing a closely-fought contest in the first Test at Centurion earlier this week. 

Shan Masood said the best teams are able to win matches because they tend to “make a habit out of it.” “You want to compete against the best, not just compete you want to win against the best,” Masood said. “And for us it’s heartening to compete but we have to be ruthless and cross the line somewhere,” he added. 

Playing XI:

1 Shan Masood (capt) 2 Saim Ayub 3 Babar Azam 4 Kamran Ghulam 5 Saud Shakeel 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 7 Salman Ali Agha 8 Aamer Jamal 9 Mir Hamza 10 Mohammad Abbas 11 Khurram Shahzad

South Africa make three changes

Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Thursday announced their playing XI for the final Test against Pakistan. The hosts made three changes to their line-up as Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj and uncapped Kwena Maphaka replaced Tony de Zorzi, Corbin Bosch and Dane Paterson.

Both Bosch and Paterson were instrumental in leading the home side to a narrow two-wicket victory in the series, which guaranteed their place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

Paterson bagged a five-wicket haul in the first innings and followed it up with one scalp in the second.

Bosch, on the other hand, played an unbeaten 81-run knock in the first innings after taking four wickets.

South Africa Playing XI:

Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Kwena Maphaka.