The world champion Proteas will need to make history in Lahore if they are to extend their 10-match unbeaten streak.
No team has ever scored more than the 277 the visitors require for victory at the Gaddafi Stadium. It was reduced to 226 when stumps were drawn on the third evening, but captain Aiden Markram and Wiaan Mulder are already walking casualties.
Both were victims of that wily old customer Noman Ali, who added the two scalps to his six-for earlier in the day that had reduced the Proteas’ first innings to 269 – a deficit of 109 runs.
The veteran left-arm will pose the premier threat again on a wearing sharp-turning surface, and the likes of Ryan Rickelton and first innings centurion Tony de Zorzi, who are the unbeaten batters at the crease, will need not only a rock-solid technique but also their fair share of luck if the Proteas are to even get close to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Rickelton has already had some good fortune, dropped on 26 at short-leg shortly before the close, while De Zorzi had a four-leaf clover in his pocket during the early stages of his first innings century.
SPIN KINGS
“Yeah, the first 30 balls weren’t great. I was just trying my best to hang in there hoping it would turn and obviously I rode my luck,” De Zorzi said. “I think I laughed at myself a lot, but eventually it turned a bit my way.”
The dreadlocked left-hander, who was only recalled to the side due to the injury-enforced absence of captain Temba Bavuma, may have adopted a philosophical approach to his early struggles, but it was the motivation of being left out of the side over the past couple of series that drove him to battle though the tough periods before prospering during the latter stages of his second Test century.
“I was desperate to get back in,” he said.
“I wanted to put my name in the headlights in Zim and stuff, and that, unfortunately, didn’t go so well, but these were tough conditions. The team was in a tough position. I was in a tough position off the field trying to get back into the team. So those mental battles and physical battles, I was injured.
“The team was in a bit of trouble and I was happy that I could contribute in some way. So, for me, I think it was special.”
A similar contribution would go a long way in helping the Proteas create history, but De Zorzi knows it will not be squarely upon his shoulders as partnerships – like the on-going one with Rickleton – that could possibly hold the key to the outcome.
“We will both be crucial,” De Zorzi said.
“A partnership on this wicket is gold. I think it is a bit tough to start.
“Ricks and I are both lefties but we bat a little bit differently. We both have different strengths and I think we complement each other quite well.
“We just keep each other present in a partnership. We just try to take it one ball at a time. We remind each other about good options. Whatever those are for us, they’re different.”
The fact that the Proteas even have a glimmer of hope is due to Pakistan’s helter-skelter approach to their second innings, which played into the hands of the spin duo
Senuran Muthusamy and Simon Harmer, who snared nine wickets between them as the hosts crumbled to 167 all out – their last six wickets falling for 17 runs.
Five of them belonged to Muthusamy with the left-arm spinner doubling his career Test five-fors in one match to finish with figures of 11/174 – just the fourth South African spinner to pick up a 10-wicket Test match haul.
The world champion Proteas will need to make history in Lahore if they are to extend their 10-match unbeaten streak. No team has ever scored more than the 277 the visitors require for victory at the Gaddafi Stadium. It was reduced to 226 when stumps were drawn on the third evening, but captain Aiden Markram and Wiaan Mulder are already walking casualties.Both were victims of that wily old customer Noman Ali, […]
