The edge is where Tony de Zorzi lives. Put that on the margins. The ball appeared to find the middle of his bat far less frequently than the splintery perimeters, but that’s what he did on Monday at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
De Zorzi, as expected, had to walk a tightrope. The entire drama of the second day of the first Test, including the bowlers, his batting partners, the umpires, and others. which was essentially a wicket-tumbling match on a surface that was twisting more and more.
In 56 deliveries, Pakistan’s last five were outscored by 16 runs. The visitors concluded the day six down and 162 behind as four of South Africa’s crashed for 26 in 63 balls in the final hour.
However, De Zorzi is still with them, and that might be crucial. He faced 140 balls for his undefeated 81 in 15 minutes less than three hours of batting time. No one knows how he got to that point.
De Zorzi was hit on the back pad and out leg before wicket by Sajid Khan after he had edged to 23 just two deliveries before tea. On review, he was given a reprieve since he had been struck off-stoop.
Sajid believed he had De Zorzi leg-before again in the fourth over following the next drinks break, when Tristan Stubbs was caught behind off Noman Ali and Dewald Brevis bunted the first ball thrown to him by Sajid straight into the clutches of midwicket. Umpire Chris Brown disagreed, and as the impact was once more outside off, he was proven right.
Six deliveries and 36 balls later, after Noman Ali had caught a sweeping Kyle Verreynne in front, Sajid made another loud plea to try to get De Zorzi out of the crease. Brown declined once more. The Pakistanis passed the decision upward once more. Unexpectedly, Tony de Zorzi had edged the ball onto his pad, which is why it came back down unaltered this time.
Tony de Zorzi had hit 50 at that point, something he hadn’t accomplished in his nine Test innings prior, which dated back nearly 11 months. Not a single attempt of at least 20 was made during those innings, despite two ducks, two twos, and a four. He only batted for over an hour once. He never faced more than 35 balls.
In March of this year, he scored 78 not out against Northerns and 141 against Boland in back-to-back trips to the crease for Western Province. This season, however, he has only managed to score 55 runs in his other three first-class innings for Province.
De Zorzi does not possess the angular elegance that many left-handers possess; instead, he is a robust thumper of the ball. Since his 177 in Chattogram in October 2024, the bowlers have conducted the most of the hammering.
On Monday, his batting was marked by that humiliating encounter. It was to his advantage that he performed like a man who hadn’t had much success recently. Finding the stroke that would keep his wicket was more important to him than finding the ideal one. Happy days if it also brought him jogging. Against Pakistan’s bristling slow poisoners, that was no easy task on a whirling, ever-lower bouncing pitch.
Tony de Zorzi was capable, nevertheless.
He flipped two more and edged three of his nine fours. He dragged, sliced, and swept his other four borders with meatiness. In the sixth over following tea, he showed glinting confidence by hitting a slog-swept six off Sajid against the turn and over midwicket.
Tony de Zorzi appeared to remark, “Yes, I haven’t scored many runs lately,” with that hit.
“Yes, I haven’t really been batting with diamonds on my shoe soles this innings. I’m still here, though. Furthermore, the longer I live, the better I get.
Other players would have been happy to defend Salman Khan’s squat after throwing outside off, which was the day’s penultimate ball. After moving in the direction of his stumps, De Zorzi produced a powerful pull that sent the ball hurtling to the midwicket boundary.
None of the aforementioned was the highlight of his innings. Instead, it was the result of Salman’s opening delivery in the third-last over of the day, which completely destroyed him.
The ball fizzed past the outside edge and spun as if it had struck a table corner despite De Zorzi’s defensive drive forward. Despite Tony de Zorzi foot remaining stationary, Mohammad Rizwan proceeded to deprive the wicket of its bails using a gloved flourish.
Tony de Zorzi side of the stumps was hit by one. Bending at the waist, he picked up the bail and gave it to the wicketkeeper with a spooky calm. There he was, in his Zen garden.
Senuran Muthusamy, who took 6/117 and nursed South Africa to the end with Tony de Zorzi, told a news conference, “It’s not ideal to have lost those wickets so close to the end of play, but this does happen in Test cricket.” “It’s about bouncing back and finding some resilience.”
Muthusamy is familiar with the definition of resilience. The distance was 22 yards for the 26 minutes he batted alongside Tony de Zorzi.
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