Watch cricket video highlights of Pakistan tour of South Africa 2024/25. Second Test between South Africa and Pakistan. Venue of the match will be Cape Town.
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South Africa easily defeated Pakistan by 10 wickets to secure their spot in the WTC final. After two and a half days of battling with the ball, they eventually forced Pakistan out for 478 in the third innings, marking their sixth straight Test victory. The visitors erased the second-highest first-innings deficit in Test history thanks to a heroic century from Pakistan skipper Shan Masood and a host of other efforts that forced South Africa to bat again. But South Africa needed 7.1 overs to reach the goal of 58, which was essentially a formality.
However, Pakistan forced them to wait for victory. They did not expect to bowl another 122.1 overs on Sunday afternoon when South Africa forced the follow-on leading by 421. After a massive 205-run opening partnership with Babar Azam, Masood, who had gone undefeated overnight at 102, continued to try to rebuild. For much of the day, South Africa was dissatisfied, especially in the afternoon when Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Agha had an 88-run partnership.
However, Keshav Maharaj, who had been out of the game for the majority of the day, made the breakthrough, and subsequent wickets made sure that the game was played out in the late evening sun. Before Rabada cleaned up Kamran Ghulam earlier in the day, Marco Jansen had already removed nightwatcher Khurram Shahzad. With the exception of one moment when he switched ends, Maharaj bowled throughout the whole of the session. The most threat to the hitters came from his changes in pace and flight, along with a ball that kept turning, but the wickets came to pace.
Shahzad had performed his duties and never appeared fully prepared to continue for very long. He chipped a length ball from Jansen straight to Maharaj at point when it became too large for him. Throughout his innings, Ghulam maintained the slip cordon’s attention by never fully settling. At first slip, he should have been on his way without scoring when he sliced at a wide one in the same over that Shahzad fell, but it exploded past David Bedingham’s hands. However, that wicket kept coming.
Rabada was becoming more and more irritated with his lack of wickets and his lack of discipline after bowling four more no-balls this morning. He discovered a beauty that pegged back his middle stump and nipped back off the seam into Ghulam just after he had overstepped. The roar that followed demonstrated how much it meant to him, and it was a great way to commemorate his 50th Test wicket at Newlands. South Africa might have had one more scalp before lunch, but Saud Shakeel and Masood persisted in making them work for each one.
South Africa decided against a review after Kwena Maphaka squared Shakeel up with a beautiful delivery that straightened as it touched the pad. Hawk-Eye demonstrated that the blow was striking the leg stump as Shakeel was receiving intensive medical attention. At the crease, Maphaka also put an end to Masood’s vigil. Before he couldoned into the batter’s front pad, he got one to form away from the seam that remained low. Hawk-Eye showed it striking when South Africa reviewed, despite umpire Nitin Menon’s opinion that ball was missing off stump.
Masood responded angrily to it, and his complaints persisted as he walked slowly out of the crease and into the dressing room. It concluded South Africa’s successful first hour after lunch. Shortly after play restarted, Shakeel was dismissed for nicking off into the slips when driving at Rabada, which is similar to how he fell in the first innings. Masood’s departure raised the possibility that Pakistan may collapse, as they had done in recent times. But Rizwan and Agha rebuilt again.
They maintained the strike turning over while wearing off the gloss of the second fresh ball. As Pakistan attempted to exploit the weary bowlers, the partnership’s first 55 runs contained just three fours. However, when Mulder made a mistake, Agha quickly bowled him out for two fours in three balls. The two continued as Pakistan quickly erased the deficit, but South Africa’s anxieties started to relax once again when Rizwan chipped Maharaj to short cover, just where Bavuma had positioned a fielder for the shot.
A Maharaj ball ripped and bounced, resulting in a sharp catch for Aiden Markram in the slips, and shortly after, Agha, who had been reprieved by DRS, fell two runs short of his half-century. Mir Hamza emerged and enjoyed himself a little, hitting the lone six of the innings with a heave back over the bowler’s head. However, it wasn’t made to last. Before Rabada finished the batting and Bedingham and Markram ran off the field, Aamer Jamal reverse-swept Maharaj to slip.
At this very location, six years ago, South Africa needed 41 runs to win the series when Pakistan’s third innings finished on the third evening. The game ended on the fourth morning when stumps were called. The South African openers this time prevented the game from continuing into the following day. Bedingham’s striking little knock, an undefeated 47 off 30, gave South Africa a boost and made sure it required just 43 balls to win, which was eventually straightforward despite a lengthy wait in the field.
