Proteas their own worst enemy on frustrating first day

Even though they were the superior team in the second half of the first day, Monday was still a deeply frustrating start to the second Test for the Proteas.

Pakistan were 259/5 at stumps at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, and hold the upper hand even though they weren’t as progressive as they were in Lahore, when Shan Masood also won the toss, and chose to bat.

The Pakistani captain led from the front with a well-constructed 87, and was a beneficiary of what was an awful day in the field from the Proteas.

Most of SA’s irritation was self-inflected. They dropped four catches, wicket-keeper Kyle Verreynne missed a stumping, edges flew between and through the slip region and in the one bizarre instance that wasn’t their fault, Marco Jansen, hit the off-stump, but the bail remained in its groove giving Abdullah Shafique, his second ‘life’ at that time.

Before then the Pakistani opener was dropped at third slip by Tristan Stubbs in the first over - a horrible miss by a player who must count himself lucky to be part of the starting XI in Rawalpindi.

Shafique lived a charmed life for the majority the three hours he spent batting; he was also dropped by Keshav Maharaj off his own bowling, Aiden Markram also grassed a catch at slip off Maharaj when Shafique had 41 and Verreynne missed a stumping chance when the batter had 53 - once more Maharaj was the bowler.

The left-arm spinner, was as forecast slotted straight back into the starting team in place of Prenalen Subrayen, while SA also added Jansen’s additional pace, by somewhat surprisingly omitting Wiaan Mulder, who two Tests ago made a triple hundred and retaining Stubbs, who in his last five Tests is averaging 9 with the bat.

Stubbs’ dreadful miss in the first over off Rabada’s bowling, illustrated a player whose confidence is at a low ebb and batting will again be hard on a pitch that is assisting spin, although has more pace and bounce than last week’s surface in Lahore.

Pakistan’s only change to the team that won last week, was to add another spinner in Asif Afridi, who at 38 is the second oldest player to make his Test debut for Pakistan, with Hasan Ali dropped.

Masood’s assertiveness gave Pakistan the upper hand in the first session, with the left-hander using his feet well against the spinners to launch a couple of sixes, while his play off the backfoot was equally authoritative.

Between the chances missed and bowlers again struggling to find rhythm SA grew gradually annoyed, knowing that, already disadvantaged by not having the toss go their way, they allowed the opposition to gain the ascendancy too easily.

Simon Harmer was the only bowler to achieve success in the morning producing a peach to dismiss Imam ul-Haq in his first over.

Given that his confidence would have been high after taking 11 wickets in the first Test, it was strange that Senuran Muthusamy only bowled four overs on the first day, the same number as Markram.

Instead it was Maharaj who did the bulk of the bowling, finishing with 2/63 in 31 overs. After Harmer snared Shafique, caught down the leg-side by Verreynne for 57, Maharaj then had Babar Azam, who’d struck four boundaries, magnificently caught by Tony de Zorzi at silly point.

It was another for the De Zorzi collection of stunning close in catches, this one a diving effort to his right, where he hung onto the ball with one hand.

After being dropped on 71 by Muthusamy, Masood was caught at square leg after miscuing a sweep and the late dismissal of Mohammad Rizwan, with the second new ball, would have lifted the mood in the South African camp.

However their ill-discipline proved costly on Monday making their route to a win extremely difficult.