Pakistan middle-order batsmen Shoaib Malik and Moin Khan hung on to secure a thrilling draw on Tuesday in the second Test against South Africa, clinching the two-Test series 1-0.
Needing 302 after a bold declaration by visiting skipper Graeme Smith late on Monday, Pakistan ended at 242 for six.
Pakistan had to survive tense moments for their first series victory against any major Test-playing country in six years.
Seamers Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock had given South Africans a sniff of victory, but Khan and Malik batted out the last 15 overs to cling on for the draw. Khan was unbeaten on 9 and Malik on 23.
With the new ball, Ntini and Pollock had removed dangerous Inzamam-ul-Haq (60) and Abdul Razzaq (10) off successive deliveries and reduced the home team to 209 for six.
Malik hit Ntini for two successive boundaries but was lucky to get a life in the same over. It could have easily been 219 for seven had Gary Kirsten held on to a top edge off Malik’s bat at deep fine leg with still more than 17 overs left in the game.
The draw was enough to see Pakistan climb to fifth place in the International Cricket Council’s Test ranking — behind Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England.
South Africa had their chances before the new ball was taken.
Herschelle Gibbs dropped a sitter off Inzamam at point when the batsman had scored 24, and Mark Boucher also let off half century-maker Taufeeq Umer behind the wickets on 71.
But Umer fell without adding to his score to a fine catch by Smith at mid-on off Peterson. He had hit a dozen boundaries in his four-hour, 183-ball innings — his third successive half century of the series. With a century in the first innings of the Lahore Test, which Pakistan won by eight wickets, the 22-year-old left-hander ended the series with an aggregate of 313 runs.
Resuming at the overnight total of eight without loss, Pakistan openers Umer and Imran Farhat progressed at a snail’s pace.
The pair put on just seven runs in the first hour. Farhat, who had shared three consecutive century partnerships with Umer in the series, occupied the crease for one-and-a-half hours for his nine runs before he misjudged Jacques Kallis’s sharp delivery and was trapped leg before.
Yasir Hameed struck three boundaries in his 17 but needlessly pulled Ntini and gave a simple catch to Boeta Dippenaar at square leg as Pakistan crawled to 63 for one at lunch.
Pakistan lost the wicket of Umer in the second session but gained momentum with a 79-run fourth wicket partnership between Inzamam and Asim Kamal (38) before Kamal got a thin outside edge to Boucher off Paul Adams.
However, once South Africa took the new ball, Pollock and Ntini got wickets off two successive deliveries.
Pakistan routed Bangladesh 3-0 last month in the home series, but had not beaten any other Test team in a series since Wasim Akram’s side whitewashed West Indies at home in 1997. — Sapa-AP