South Africa 460 for 4 (Smith 227*, de Villiers 157*) lead Pakistan 99 (Babar 25*, Tahir 5-32, Steyn 3-38) by 361 runs
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After bundling out Pakistan for 99 on the first day of the second Test,
South Africa served them a lesson on how to grind out an opposition with
the bat on the second, as Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers
put on a mammoth 326-run unbeaten partnership to close doors on any
thoughts of a series win Misbah-ul-Haq might have had after the success
in Abu Dhabi. Smith scored an almost chanceless double-century - his
fifth - while de Villiers brought up his 17th hundred and with three
days still to go, the two put South Africa in a dominant position with a
lead of 361 runs.
It was Smith's first century - his fourth against Pakistan - on return
from a five-month lay-off during which he underwent an ankle surgery. If
there were any lingering doubts about his fitness or form, he dispelled
them with nimble use of the feet against the spinners and assured
strokeplay against the seamers. He reached the century-mark with a
straight drive off Saeed Ajmal in the first session and strolled to his
double in the third. The 200th run also made him only the 12th batsman -
and second South African after Jacques Kallis - to have accumulated
9000 runs in Tests. By the end of the day, Smith had batted for more
than six hours, a testament to his fitness in sapping conditions.
Smith briefly faced some problems against Irfan's steep bounce in the
second session. He was smacked on the helmet off one such delivery that
chased him as he was making room. But apart from that, his innings was
largely unblemished.
In de Villiers, Smith had an ideal partner to complement his solidity
with breathtaking strokeplay. The contrast was at its starkest during
the second session when de Villiers tore into the bowling with a flurry
of boundaries against the new ball, while Smith was happy in turning the
strike over. But as de Villiers slowed down as he closed in on his
century and then later, because of cramps, Smith brought out an array of
aggressive strokes to thwart the bowlers. He had hit only six fours in
his first hundred, but increased the number to 16 as he started playing
horizontal bat shots to the seamers and lofted shots against spinners in
the latter half of his innings. By the end of the day, Smith had added
158 runs to the partnership, neatly balancing the 157 added by de
Villiers.
After a slow start to the day when 70 runs were scored in the first
session, Pakistan leaked 262 runs in the next two. It was de Villiers
who switched gears first, unfurling back-foot punches and front-foot
drives against Irfan and the new ball, then he drilled Zulfiqar Babar to
the straight boundary to bring up his half-century and 1000 Test runs
against Pakistan. He kept up the attack on Irfan, hitting two more
boundaries in his next over, and forcing Misbah to take his best bowler
out of the attack after three overs with the new ball. Towards the end
of the second session, he played an exquisite inside-out drive to go
past his century. He curtailed his shots in the third session after
being slowed down by a bout of cramps, but that didn't stop him from
going past the 150-mark with relative ease.
Pakistan, though, were left to rue a few chances that came their way. De
Villiers, facing his first delivery against Irfan, was lured into a
loose drive by a full delivery that went across the batsman. He was slow
to move closer to the line of the delivery and a thick outside edge
flew low to the right of the wicketkeeper, but Adnan Akmal failed to
hold on.
The second chance came late in the session when Saeed Ajmal's appeal for
lbw against de Villiers, who was on 25, was turned down by the umpire
Rod Tucker, who thought the ball had hit the bat before the pad. The
replays showed the ball hit the pads first and would have gone on to
strike the middle stump. However, Pakistan didn't have any reviews left
after they had wasted them within five overs of the innings yesterday.
The reviews were replenished after the 80th over, but Pakistan's luck
with them showed no improvement. De Villiers was given out lbw to a
sharply turning delivery in the second over of the third session, only
to be saved by the ball-tracker which showed the ball would have spun
past the leg stump.
For Pakistan bowlers, the day didn't have as bad a start. Irfan removed
Dale Steyn, the nightwatchman, early, reducing South Africa to 134 for
4. It could have been 134 for 5 had Akmal held on to the chance offered
by de Villiers. From then on, the four frontline bowlers toiled hard all
day without any rewards. By the end of the day, Ajmal and Babar had
bowled 75 overs in the innings. Ajmal derived some useful turn from the
pitch, but it was just that the batsmen were both in prime form.
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'Very disappointed with Pakistan's performance' - Waqar Younis
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Devashish Fuloria is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Devashish Fuloria
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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