Left-arm spinner Paul Adams took a career-best 7-128 as South Africa restricted Pakistan’s first-innings total on the third day of the first Test at Gaddafi stadium on Sunday.
Adams snapped five wickets to bring Pakistan’s innings to a close on 401 after the home side had been 346-5 at lunch.
When bad light forced an early close with four overs remaining, South Africa were at 99-1, a lead of 18, with Herschelle Gibbs on 56 and Boeta Dippenaar on 25.
Adams’s haul overshadowed a knock of 99 by left-hander Asim Kamal. Pakistan also rued some sloppy fielding, which handed the initiative back to the tourists.
Gibbs should have returned to the pavilion on 13 but wicketkeeper Moin Khan dropped a straightforward catch. He hit seven boundaries and a six after his partner, Graeme Smith, was dismissed for 12.
Shoaib Akhtar, banned for the next Test and two one-day internationals on charges of using abusive language on Saturday, forced Smith into giving a slips catch with a sharp, rising delivery, but it was Pakistan’s only wicket of the day.
Adams (26) applied the brakes on Pakistan’s innings after Kamal played on an Andre Nel delivery just one run short of his first hundred.
He became only the third batsman in Test cricket’s 128-year history to be dismissed for 99 on his Test debut, after Australias AG Chipperfield (1934) and West Indian R Christiani (1947-48 season).
”It is disappointing to have missed a debut century but still there is satisfaction of helping the team get a crucial lead,” said Adams.
Kamal’s dismissal prompted a slide as Pakistan lost the last five wickets for just 38, with Adams taking four of them.
Earlier Kamal had reached his maiden half-century in the first over of the day after Pakistan resumed at 275-4.
Malik fell to Adams after scoring 47, including seven boundaries.
Adams removed Shoaib (one) and two balls later bowled Mohammad Sami for nought to complete his fourth five-wicket haul. In his next over, he trapped Moin Khan leg-before for 37 and had Danish Kaneria for a second-ball duck to wrap up the Pakistani innings.
The second and final Test starts in Faisalabad from October 24. — Sapa-AFP