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Pakistan well on top

Sunday, October 26 2003

They bowled well on the first day, and today was the turn of the batsmen to do their job.

Makyaha Ntini and Paul Adams held up the attack with a little stand of 28 for the last wicket, but Danish Kaneria picked up Adams, a 4th catch for Taufeeq Umar, who was then straight into the fray as he strolled to the middle with fellow opener Imran Farhat.

They may be only 22 and 21, but they batted as if they'd years of Test experience behind them against an experienced South African seam attack, starting slowly, but gradually upping the rate until the stand had reached 137 and the breakthrough finally came, with Gibbs taking a catch off Adams and Umar was out for 68.

Yasir Hameed came in at 3, and he looked lively in his brief stay, hitting 4 boundaries in his 33-ball 21 before he hit Pollock to Gibbs.

Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was next in, and he played an anchor role for the rest of the day, allowing Farhat to go on to register his first Test century in his 5th game, a super knock that led his side to 237-2 at the close.

Trailing by only 41 runs with 8 wickets in hand, and requiring a draw to clinch the series, Pakistan hold all the cards here, and South Africa's only hope is that the New Ball is due in just 1 over's time - if that's ineffective and seen off, this one looks like it's got away from Graeme Smith's men.

Posted by Marc