Taking all five of the morning’s wickets for a seven-wicket haul, Keshav Maharaj, who dubbed the opening session of this series the “moving session,” performed the majority of the moving himself. South Africa removed Pakistan’s final five for 17 runs to dismiss them for 333, continuing their habit of collapses at a blazing pace in the morning. Even though it ended with a clumsy three overs before lunch, Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton got them off without any problems.
Salman Ali Agha and Saud Shakeel continued their sixth wicket stand in the morning with 57 quick runs, so Pakistan will be happy with that at least. For the first hour, they had total control, milking the spinners and pulling up the rare boundary. Before Maharaj went on his rampage, there were no outward symptoms of irritation against him, and Kagiso Rabada’s opening spell was ended without any damage. Pakistan passed the 300-run mark as Shakeel got eight runs off him in the over before the first wicket fell.
However, things fell apart quite fast—within 18 Maharaj deliveries, to be exact.
Agha, who was caught in front after playing for the turn, was hit by an arm ball. Shakeel gently led the next Maharaj over into the palms of first slip, and South Africa made no mistakes in the field this morning. The spinner found Shaheen Afridi’s attempted wafts over midwicket to be meat and drink, and he guided one through the gate to rattle his stumps. He would only need a few more balls to get rid of Sajid Khan and Asif Afridi and completely turn around a session that had started with Pakistan seemingly pulling clear once more.
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