Pakistan sniffing big upset against South Africa after Misbah’s century
Thursday, 17 October 2013 00:00
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ESPNcricinfo: It’s been nearly two years since South Africa lost a Test match, and as several of their opponents have found out, one or two exceptional individual performances aren’t sufficient to topple them. Pakistan know that, and nearly everybody in the team has contributed in the first three days to put them in a position to upset the world’s No. 1 ranked team.
Misbah-ul-Haq and Saeed Ajmal, the lynchpins of the batting and bowling respectively, both delivered but unlike other occasions, they had a large supporting cast. Khurram Manzoor went on to make the highest Test score by a Pakistan batsman against South Africa, Asad Shafiq shrugged off his indifferent recent form to make a vital half-century, Mohammad Irfan’s unsettling bounce made the openers’ life difficult, Junaid Khan ruined Jacques Kallis’ birthday by dismissing him for a duck, and the debutant Zulfiqar Babar struck the biggest blow of the day with his first delivery, getting rid of the super-consistent Hashim Amla late in the day.
All of which combined to leave South Africa tottering at 72 for 4, still needing 121 to make Pakistan bat again on a track that had seemed docile but was causing serious headaches when Pakistan were bowling.
Chief Scores: South Africa 249 and 72 for 4 (Smith 32) trail Pakistan 442 (Manzoor 146, Misbah 100, Shafiq 54) by 121 runs.
