Pakistan took advantage of South Africa’s poor catching to amass 259-5 on the opening day of the second and final Test in Rawalpindi on Monday.
If the tourists had not dropped five catches on a turning pitch, they would have been in a better position after Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat.
Skipper Shan Masood, dropped on 71 off an unlucky Keshav Maharaj, top-scored with 87 while Abdullah Shafique—dropped four times—scored 57.
Saud Shakeel and Salman Agha will resume on Tuesday unbeaten on 42 and 10 respectively, with the home team aiming for a 2-0 series win against the world Test champions.
South African pacer Kagiso Rabada trapped Mohammad Rizwan with the fifth delivery using the second new ball for 19, offering some respite to his team.
Maharaj, who missed the first Test in Lahore due to injury, took 2-63, and fellow spinner Simon Harmer took 2-75.
With the majority of the bowling done by Maharaj and Harmer, spinner Senuran Muthusamy—who took 11 wickets in the first Test—was surprisingly used for just four overs.
The final session also saw Masood fall to an uppish sweep off Maharaj, caught by Marco Jansen, after hitting two fours and three sixes in his innings.
Earlier, Shafique’s chancy knock finally ended when he edged Harmer to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne after adding an invaluable 111 runs for the second wicket with skipper Masood.
The struggling Babar Azam, again cheered by a home crowd willing him to return to form, was dismissed for just 16 when Tony de Zorzi took a low catch at silly point for Maharaj’s first wicket.
Azam has gone 29 Test innings without a century.
Maharaj himself dropped Shafique on 15 off his own bowling and then saw Aiden Markram drop the same batter on 41 and 53.
Shafique also survived on nine when a Jansen delivery rolled onto the stumps but did not dislodge the bails.
Shafique admitted he was lucky.
“You need luck in cricket and I was lucky today,” said Shafique. “Catches get dropped in cricket and today we benefitted from them and now we need to post a 350-plus total from here.”
In the morning session, South Africa’s only breakthrough came from Harmer, who bowled Imam-ul-Haq for 17 with a sharp turner that beat the bat and hit off-stump.
Rabada was also unlucky when Tristan Stubbs dropped Shafique in the slips off the fourth ball of the match when he was on nought.
“It was an even day because we controlled their run rate,” said Maharaj. “We know how important catches are, but no one means to drop them, although it was frustrating.”
Having won the first Test in Lahore by 93 runs, Pakistan included a third spinner in Asif Afridi, dropping fast bowler Hasan Ali.
At 38 years and 299 days, Asif became the second oldest Pakistani Test debutant, behind Miran Bakhsh, who made his debut at 47 years and 284 days against India in 1955.
