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    SA vs PAK 2024/25, South Africa vs Pakistan 1st Test, Day 3, Centurion Match Report, December 26 – 30, 2024

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    Pakistan 211 and 212 for 8 (Shakeel 66*, Babar 50, Jansen 5-42, Rabada 2-68) lead South Africa 301 by 122 runs

    Marco Jansen’s five-wicket haul helped South Africa tighten their control in the first Test with three wickets in the afternoon as Pakistan squandered a promising start following a rain delay that wiped out the morning session. Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel put on 79 for the fourth wicket, with Babar reaching his first Test half-century in two years, but holed out to deep third immediately after. Mohammad Rizwan was squeezed down leg, and Pakistan crumbled around Shakeel’s unbeaten 66, going into tea 122 ahead with just two wickets in hand.
    Persistent rain saw the game start an hour after the lunch break concluded, and Pakistan began by taking advantage of a bowling effort that was nowhere near its best. Shakeel and Babar each worked Kagiso Rabada away for four in the third over, and the runs flowed for the next half hour. Twenty-three came off the next three, and though Babar still found himself beaten a few times, he was also finding the timing that in the past was so often a precursor to a big score.

    Corbin Bosch found that out when he missed his line twice and Babar helped himself to two boundaries, before a clip into the covers brought up the long awaited half-century, his first in 20 innings. But he threw it away disappointingly, failing to get on top of a short and wide one from Jansen, Bosch barely having to move to send a devastated Babar on his way.

    Jansen was finding the wickets that eluded him in the first innings, with Rizwan and Salman Agha falling cheaply. A brief stand between Shakeel and Aamer Jamal once more gave the impression Pakistan would go into tea six down, before Jamal lobbed a tame Dane Paterson bouncer straight to deep midwicket, and Naseem helpfully nicking Rabada into the slips.

    It was the exclamation mark on a session that, for South Africa, had, under grey clouds, began much less brightly.

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