Dane Paterson five-for, Corbin Bosch’s four rock Pakistan in Centurion

Tea Pakistan 209 for 9 (Ghulam 54, Jamal 28, Paterson 5-61, Bosch 4-63) vs South Africa

Rizwan and Ghulam had been building up the partnership the other side of lunch, and continued in similar vein. But with the clouds menacingly moving right overhead, the luckless Kagiso Rabada was brought in for another excellent but fruitless spell. It produced the most engaging cricket of the day, with both KGs – Rabada and Ghulam – locking horns on more than one occasion. Rabada grew increasingly frustrated with Ghulam’s stubborn resistance and got close enough to tell him, with Ghulam responding in less than family-friendly terms to go back to the bowling crease.

With the crowd engaged, Ghulam edged one to the slips that Marco Jansen shelled, and brought up his half-century, but South Africa would not be denied. Ghulam slogged Paterson, only to top edge him to fine leg, where none other than Rabada stood to take the catch that sent a full SuperSport Park into a frenzy.

South Africa had put down a couple of chances in the slips off the outside edge, so Bosch found the inside edge of Jamal as he chopped on, before a surprise bouncer from Paterson saw the back of Agha. With Naseem Shah swiftly dispensed with, Mohammad Abbas and Khurram Shahzad plugged along to frustrate South Africa, ensuring they will start the final session bowling again.

South Africa had started the day by doing to Pakistan what they always do to Pakistan at Centurion, blitzing them with the ball in the second hour of the first session. Bosch and Paterson cashed in after a superb opening hour of bowling from Rabada and Jansen, which openers Shan Masood and Saim Ayub rode their luck to survive.

The story of the opening session changed the moment Temba Bavuma threw the ball to debutant Bosch. He began with a loosener well outside off stump. Masood, who had been forced to deal with an unerring fourth-stump line all of the first hour, had his eyes light up as he slashed at it, with a thick outside edge carrying to Jansen at third slip to give him a first-ball wicket.

All of a sudden, the good balls that kept missing edges started to find them. Paterson nipped one away from Ayub, who was uncharacteristically defensive, accumulating a painstaking 14 off 35 balls. It kissed the outside edge, and both openers were back in the pavilion. Paterson wasn’t done, though because Babar Azam, returning to the side, also had a prod at one well outside off stump, the tentativeness of his stroke revealing his lack of confidence; it was meat and drink for the slips again.

With Pakistani defenses going haywire, Saud Shakeel went for the other extreme, looking to take every ball on, but it was just six deliveries before that strategy ran out of road. He gloved a hook through to the wicketkeeper, with South Africa successfully reviewing to send him on his way back.

It will be all the more frustrating for Pakistan after a magnificent first hour of South African bowling went unrewarded. With Rabada and Jansen nipping it around, it was obvious why Bavuma had opted to put Pakistan in. But somehow, they had gritted out a way to off the two leading bowlers.

The two who followed them, though, would go on to show they are sidekicks to no one.