Cape Town – Faf du Plessis and Temba Bavuma shared a century partnership asSouth Africa moved into a commanding position on the second day of thesecond Test against Pakistan at Newlands on Friday.
South Africa were 281 for four wickets at tea, a lead of 104 runs.
South African captain Du Plessis, out for a “pair” during South Africa’ssix-wicket win in the first Test in Centurion, was on 80 not out, thehighest score of the series. Bavuma had 60 not out. Their fifth wicketpartnership was worth 132 runs.
The batsmen had to counter some accurate, hostile bowling before lunch whenPakistan took two wickets during the first hour and thought they had athird when Bavuma, on three, edged Mohammad Abbas to Azhar Ali at firstslip.
Read Top Stories
The on-field umpires gave a “soft” signal of “out” but asked for televisionumpire Sunderam Ravi to check whether there had been a clean catch. Hedecided the ball had made contact with the ground while the catch was beingtaken.
Batting was not easy with several cracks widening on the pitch, includingone on a good length outside the right-handers’ off stump, which probablycontributed to the wickets of Aiden Markram off the last ball on Thursdayand Hashim Amla in the second over on Friday. – APP/AFP
