South Africa came up with another dominant performance, quelling a strong fightback by Pakistan with a comprehensive 10-wicket victory to make a 2-0 sweep of the two-match series at the Newland stadium in Cape Town on Monday.
The win guaranteed South Africa the top position in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings and was a big boost, a few days after sealing a spot in the final.
After posting a massive 615 runs in their first innings on the back of a mammoth double hundred by Ryan Rickelton (259) and centuries by Temba Bavuma (106) and Kyle Verreynne (100), the hosts rode on brilliant bowling by Kagiso Rabada (3-55), and Kwena Maphaka (2-43) to bundle out Pakistan for 194 in their first innings.
The visitors, made to follow-on, put up a strong fight in the second innings despite the absence of young batting sensation Siam Ayub, who got injured on the opening day of the match and did not bat.
Pakistan continued to fight on Day 4 with skipper Shan Masood scoring a valiant 145. Masood and his predecessor Babar Azam (81) posted 205 for the opening wicket but in the end, it proved insufficient eventually.
Pakistan began Day 4 of the second Test trailing South Africa by 208 runs with nine wickets in hand in their second innings.
Unbeaten overnight, Pakistan skipper Masood continued eating away at the South Africa total with help from the middle-order batters despite South Africa managing to eke out the wickets of Khurram Shahzad (18) and Kamran Ghulam (28) in the first session.
South Africa returned to the game with the new ball, dismissing Saud Shakeel (23) in the 83rd over, ending his 51-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Masood. And then soon after, South Africa made a double breakthrough to deal a big blow to Pakistan's resistance when debutant Kwena Maphaka delivered a crucial breakthrough by trapping Masood in front of his pads. Masood walked back after a valiant 145 off 351 deliveries, hitting 17 fours during his valiant knock.
Mohammad Rizwan (41) and Salman Agha (48) showed remarkable resilience, building another vital partnership. The duo took Pakistan to 398-5 at Tea, narrowing the deficit to just 23 runs.
But the Pakistan innings crumbled in the final session. Keshav Maharaj was South Africa’s star, getting the wickets of Rizwan, Salman, and Aamer Jamal as they were eventually all out for 478.
South Africa needed to chase 58 runs to win the match and they raced to the target without losing a wicket with David Bedingham (47* off 30) and Aiden Markram (14 not out) taking them to 61 for no loss in double quick time to seal a memorable victory.
South Africa captain Bavuma said the most pleasing aspect of the win for him was that his team continued to fight despite clenching the WTC berth by winning the first Test.
We won the first game, we qualified for the [WTC] final and we had some time before coming here, so for the guys to get themselves up and get motivated, that's what I'm pleased about. It's satisfying, good old Test cricket that we're used to. There was something for the new-ball bowlers and then it flattened out, and our batters dug in for a good score. Late on day four, there was some spin. It's what we were accustomed to growing up. It will put us in good stead, but there are also lessons about how we can get better.
Pakistan captain Masood said there were a lot of learnings for his team as it did well in the first Test but could not close it.
Lot of good things, knowing that we did really well in Centurion but didn't close it out. Even here, we didn't start well, with ball and bat. Conceding too many runs initially, then we folded with the bat on a really nice surface. But the fightback, we made our highest score against SA in Test cricket. Individually people stepped up. We need to learn how to win the crucial moments. With backs against the wall, we did well. We need to learn how to land the first punch.
