Masood, Babar’s record opening stand leads Pakistan’s fightback against South Africa

Masood and Babar had defied South Africa for nearly a session and a half after the tourists lost the last six wickets for 76 runs in the first innings and were dismissed halfway through the second session of the day

Cape Town: Captain Shan Masood and Babar Azam shared Pakistan’s record-breaking opening stand of 205 runs against South Africa after the Proteas enforced the follow-on on the third day of the second and final test Sunday.

Left-handed Masood led the tourists’ fightback with an unbeaten 102 off 166 balls but Babar missed out on his first test century in more than two years when he drove left-armer Marco Jansen late in the final session on Day 3 and got caught at gully for 81.

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Pakistan, which was bowled out for 194 earlier on Day 3, reached 213-1 at stumps, but still has plenty of work to do to save the game, trailing by 208 runs. Masood and Babar had defied South Africa for nearly a session and a half after the tourists lost the last six wickets for 76 runs in the first innings and were dismissed halfway through the second session of the day.

Their double-century stand wiped out Pakistan’s previous best opening partnership of 137 runs between Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar at Faisalabad in 2003. In the absence of the injured Saim Ayub, who was ruled out of competitive cricket for at least six weeks after fracturing his right ankle in the field on Day 1, Masood and Babar showed plenty of grit and aggression the second time around.

Masood survived a close bat and pad television referral against left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj before pulling Kagiso Rabada for his eighth boundary to reach his half-century. Babar followed his first innings top score of 58 by raising his third successive half-century off 73 balls as both kept on scoring at more than four runs an over.

Masood raised his sixth test hundred and first against South Africa when he flicked Jansen to mid-wicket for his 14th boundary as the South Africa pacers found little assistance from a dry wicket that continues to look good for batting. Maharaj looked threatening with his oddball getting some turn off the bowlers’ rough marks, but it was Jansen who provided the much-needed breakthrough late in the last session.

Earlier, Pakistan’s batting crumbled against Rabada (3-55) and South Africa’s youngest test cricketer, Kwena Maphaka (2-43), while Jansen and Wiaan Mulder also chipped in with a wicket each.

Maphaka started Pakistan’s slide when he got the key wicket of Babar as Pakistan slipped to 155-6 by lunch. The 18-year-old Maphaka celebrated his maiden test wicket in his debut test when the left-arm fast bowler had Babar caught down the leg side. Babar and Mohammad Rizwan (46) had thwarted the pace of Rabada and Jansen in the first hour after Pakistan resumed on a precarious 64-3.

Pakistan’s premier batters extended their fourth-wicket stand to 98 despite Rabada and Jansen beating Rizwan’s outside edge. Babar completed his second successive half-century of the series with back-to-back boundaries against Rabada with the first one flying above the slips cordon before he fell for 58 off 127 balls with seven boundaries.

Once Maphaka got the crucial breakthrough, the tourists lost two more wickets in quick succession. Rizwan attempted a poor shot against Mulder and under-edged the left-arm fast bowler back onto his stumps. Maharaj further punished Pakistan at the stroke of the lunch interval when he deceived Salman Ali Agha (19) off a flighted delivery and had the batter stumped.

South Africa had posted a mammoth 615 in its first innings with Ryan Rickelton scoring a career-best 259 while captain Temba Bavuma (106) and Kyle Verreynne (100) also scored centuries. South Africa sealed its place in June’s World Test Championship final against Australia after narrowly beating Pakistan by two wickets in the first test at Centurion.

Australia booked its place in the WTC final at Lord’s where it’ll face South Africa after it clinched a six-wicket victory against India earlier on Sunday in the fifth and final test at Sydney. Australia also regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with the 3-1 series win against India for the first time in 10 years.