Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen held the South Africa second innings together as hosts, chasing a daunting victory target of 370, reached 127 for the loss one wicket at the end of fourth day of their second and final Test against Pakistan at Rawalpindi Stadium here on Sunday. Markram hit a solid half century (59) and Rassie van der Dussen (48) gave him able company to give South Africa hope of an improbable and intriguing win. The tourists will need another 243 runs to level the series on Monday.

Earlier, George Linde starred with the ball for the visitors with five wickets while Keshav Maharaj picked up three wickets. Pacer Kagiso Rabada contributed to the wickets tally as well with two wickets. Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan hit an unbeaten maiden Test century and shared a record-breaking ninth-wicket stand with Nauman Ali to set up a stiff target of 370 runs for South Africa. Rizwan smashed 15 boundaries in his knock of 115 off 204 balls in nearly five hours before Pakistan, leading the series 1-0, were bowled out for 298 in their second innings after lunch on day four.

South Africa started the day in need of quick wickets and spinner Keshav Maharaj quickly made his mark, picking up the wicket of tailender Hasan Ali early, who was adjudged LBW after failing to connect a sweep shot, after the player had scored just 5 runs off 18 balls. Maharaj was on the attack and quickly forced an edge from tailender Yasir Shah that was spilled by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, much to the dismay of the South African side. Yasir had only scored 10 runs until then and Pakistan were still in a tricky situation with a score of 155 for the loss of seven wickets with a lead of 226. Yasir added 13 valuable runs to his tally before finally being removed by all-rounder George Linde, caught this time by Quinton de Kock behind the stumps. The 53-run partnership off 106 deliveries between Rizwan and Yasir however helped Pakistan stablilise the innings and push for a massive total.

The solid Rizwan was then joined by tailender Nauman and the duo wreaked havoc on the South African attack with a monumental partnership of 97 runs off 150 deliveries. The duo took the wind out of the bowling attack and scoring became easy as runs came all around the ground. Nauman eventually fell to pacer Kagiso Rabada after scoring 45 runs off 78 deliveries. Shaheen Shah Afridi could not stick around for a long period and was bowled by Linde.