RAWALPINDI: A rain-curtailed opening day of the second and final Test here at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday was interspersed with South Africa stamping their authority early on before Pakistan staging a brilliant recovery through their skipper Babar Azam and Fawad Alam.

Losing three wickets literally without any trace meant Pakistan found themselves embarking on the similar road of uncertainty with no thought process in operation when Imran Butt, Abid Ali and Azhar Ali perished in the space of 23 deliveries for just one run.

Babar and Fawad then steadied the boat by digging the side from 22-3 to 145-3 when play was officially called off at 4:40pm following a blank post-tea period due to wet conditions.

The reason for premature conclusion to an engrossing day’s play was a sharp drizzle during the tea break, that was enough to gobble up the remaining 32 overs. Despite the attempts groundstaff to dry out the outfield to make it playable enough, it took Aleem Dar and Ahsan Raza a solitary inspection to call curtains.

Winning the toss on a dry surface promptly persuaded Babar, only in his second Test as captain, to take the batting option with unchanged playing XI that won the first Test in Karachi by seven wickets.

South Africa, on the other hand, bolstered their batting which let them down badly in both innings last week by replacing paceman Lungi Ngidi with 22-year-old all-rounder Wiaan Mulder who bowls seamers.

The customary wobbles for the Pakistan openers in recent times were no surprise yet again as both Imran and Abid went cheaply for the third straight innings in this series. In between those dismissals, South Africa also removed Azhar to leave Pakistan on the brink of another capitulation that seemed very much likely at 22-3 inside the first 15 overs.

Imran, playing only his second Test, got off the mark with a delectable drive through the covers as Kagiso Rabada overpitched the second delivery of a hazy morning. A streak boundary ensued in the same over.

However, the right-hander then nicked a catch to South Africa captain Quinton de Kock off Keshav Maharaj, who seemed to have miraculously recovered from a rib niggle since the slow left-armer delivered as many as 25 out of the 58 overs bowled during the day. Imran’s 15 off 36 balls featured three boundaries.

Maharaj then made it two wickets in 10 balls when in his next over he managed to skid one through to Azhar who thought of defending it but the ball straightened enough to rap his pad, leaving umpire Ahsan to signal the batsman out for a nine-ball duck.

Abid, in the meantime, tried his best to get used to the conditions at the venue of his maiden Test century — against Sri Lanka in December 2019 — but his form, which has deserted him for more than a year, betrayed him when Aiden Markram scooped a stunning one-handed catch at short leg off Anrich Nortje. Abid hung in for 64 minutes for only six runs from 43 balls, one of which cleared the third man region for a four.

After this Babar and Fawad blunted the tourists’ bowling for 265 balls without any alarm while their stand lasted four minutes under three hours.

Both lifted the wobbly lunch-time score of 63-3 in 29 overs to 145, while adding 82 from the next 29 overs.

Babar, looked assured and Once he found the formula, the array of cover drives and flicks through the onside field became a norm as the captain reached 77 from 125 balls with 10 boundaries.

Fawad once again became an eyesore for the South African bowlers — one of whom George Linde was rendered ineffective when a powerful drive stung him on his hand so hard that the spinning all-rounder left the field in agony — as the dogged left-hander made 42 off 138 balls (five boundaries).

Fortunately for Linde, there was no fracture but the injury necessitated stitches, while de Kock had to overuse Maharaj from both ends as the spinner bowled 19 overs on the trot from the Pavilion End with his marathon spell broken by the 40-minute interval for lunch.

Maharaj later said that the early conditions played a role in helping him nip out Imran and Azhar.

“Yeah, the pitch was bit soft underneath due to moisture. That allowed me to find a bit and bounce in that small [early] period. But as it became dry and hard, there was not enough purchase to trouble both Babar and Fawad,” Maharaj remarked. “All credit to both of them because they utilised the situation very well to shift the momentum in their favour.”

Early in the morning, Asif Yaqoob, who is monitoring the TV replays in the series, was decorated with the PCB Umpire of the Year trophy which was presented to him by the celebrated ICC umpire Aleem Dar at the simple ceremony that was also attended by Ahsan Raza — Aleem’s on-field partner across both Tests of the current series — match referee Mohammad Javed Malik and fourth umpire Rashid Riaz.

Play on the remaining four days of the Test will start 15 minutes early to make up for the time lost on Thursday.

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN(1st Innings):

Imran Butt c de Kock b Maharaj 15

Abid Ali c Markram b Nortje 6

Azhar Ali lbw b Maharaj 0

Babar Azam not out 77

Fawad Alam not out 42

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-1, NB-1) 5

TOTAL (for three wkts, 58 overs) 145

FALL OF WKTS: 1-21 (Imran), 2-21 (Azhar), 3-22 (Abid)

TO BAT: Mohammad Rizwan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Nauman Ali, Yasir Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi

BOWLING (to-date): Rabada 13-1-36-0; Nortje 11-3-30-1 (2nb); Maharaj 25-7-51-2; Linde 2.5-1-2-0; Elgar 1.1-0-6-0; Mulder 5-1-18-0 (1nb).

SOUTH AFRICA: D. Elgar, A.K. Markram, H.E. van der Dussen, F. du Plessis, T. Bavuma, Q. de Kock, G.F. Linde, P.W.A. Mulder, K.A. Maharaj, K. Rabada, A. Nortje

UMPIRES: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Ahsan Raza (Pakistan)

TV UMPIRE: Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan)

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Javed Malik (Pakistan).

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2021