CAPE TOWN, Jan 3: Opener Taufiq Umar scored an unbeaten 85 to lead a Pakistan revival in the face of a huge South African total on day two of the second test on Friday.

Pakistan were 141 for one at the close, still 479 runs behind South Africa who declared their first innings just before tea at 620 for seven.

The total was just two runs short of the South African record of 622 for nine set against Australia in 1969-70.

“Firstly I didn’t know what the record was,” South African captain Shaun Pollock told reporters.

“It was a bit of a miscalculation on my part but I actually didn’t know what the record was...I thought we had already got past it.

“I am disappointed because we have broken quite a few records in this match but I suppose it is good to leave the old guys with one record.”

Taufiq and Younis Khan shared an unbeaten 105 run second wicket partnership off 194 balls, with Khan not out on 44.

South Africa’s mammoth total — in which the home team scored a record 445 runs on the first day — was achieved chiefly through the efforts of openers Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith.

The pair set a South Africa record 368 for the first wicket, the fourth highest opening partnership in test history and the highest partnership for any wicket by a South African duo.

That set South Africa up for their most runs in a day, breaking the 100-year record of 428 set at the Wanderers against Australia in 1902.

Gibbs scored 228 — his highest test score and the biggest ever at Newlands — while Smith chalked up 151.

The visitors toiled under the hot sun on the first day but fared better on the second, taking four wickets for the addition of 175 runs.

Boeta Dippenaar scored 62 and Neil McKenzie 51 while Pollock was unbeaten with 36, scored off only 19 balls and including four fours and two sixes.

The Pakistani bowling figures made woeful reading, with off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq taking three wickets and conceding 237 runs from a massive 50 overs.

The other three front line bowlers, Waqar Younis, Mohammad Zahid and Mohammad Sami went for over 100 runs each, sharing four wickets between them.

Pakistan, needing 421 just to avoid the follow on, started their reply cautiously, taking 4.4 overs to score their first runs.

But once they got off the mark Taufiq batted with aggression and took the fight to the home bowlers.

He moved to his fifth half century and first of the series off only 62 balls with eight fours and a six.

But he was given a life on 38 when McKenzie dropped a stinging chance in the gully of the bowling of fast bowler Mornantau Hayward.

Earlier Salim Elahi was caught at slip by Smith off Pollock for 10 to give South Africa their first breakthrough.

But Pollock aside, the rest of the South African bowlers failed to find a line and length that could trouble the batsmen and bowled too many loose deliveries.

South Africa lead the two-match series 1-0 and will go to the top of the International Cricket Council world test championship if they win the series.

Scoreboard

SOUTH AFRICA (1st Innings, overnight 445-3):