Noman Ali’s 10-wicket haul pulverizes South Africa

Pakistan claimed a 1-0 lead in the two-match Test series against South Africa with a 93-run victory. Shaheen Afridi and Noman Ali picked four-wicket hauls each in the second innings with the latter eventually returning match figures of 10 for 130.

South Africa needed 226 runs at the start of Day 4 with eight wickets intact but they were dealt a hammer blow on the third ball of the day as centurion from the first innings, Tony de Zorzi, was trapped in front of the stumps by Afridi. Noman who had two wickets overnight in his kitty netted Tristan Stubbs cheaply as South Africa started on a poor note. Mohammad Rizwan then missed a difficult stumping chance of Ryan Rickelton off Noman.

Despite this, Rickelton played second fiddle while Brevis scored a run-a-ball 54. The latter began with a streaky boundary which just eluded the reach of first slip before backing it up with a 15-run over off Noman, displaying that attack was the best form of defence. Brevis continued to play an aggressive brand of cricket with a four off Hasan Ali as the tourists brought up the 100-run mark. He continued to take calculated risks against Noman and hit another maximum with a slog-sweep over mid-wicket to register a half-century. A reverse sweep was up on the gallery next as Brevis’ confidence continued to rise.

A peach from Noman followed which drifted into Brevis and then turned away prodigiously to catch the top of off-stump as the bowler also accomplished his 10-wicket haul for the match. It brought an end to the dangerous 73-run stand between the right-left combination. Sajid Khan’s introduction from the other end worked like a charm for the hosts as Rickelton’s defiance came to an end with an edge to slip. Sajid picked up his second wicket in the form of Senuran Muthusamy who took a review back with him on his way to the pavillion.

Afridi trapped Kyle Verreynne with a shooter that kept low in front of the stumps which the batter had no clue about before he cleaned up the remaining two wickets of Prenalan Subrayen and Kagiso Rabada as Pakistan tasted the sweet nectar of glory.

Brief Scores: Pakistan 378 & 167 (Babar Azam 42, Abdullah Shafique 41; Senuran Muthusamy 5-57, Simon Harmer 4-51) beat South Africa 269 & 183 (Dewald Brevis 54, Ryan Rickelton 45; Shaheen Afridi 4-33, Noman Ali 4-79) by 93 runs