The first Castle Lager Test between South Africa and Pakistan was evenly poised at close of play on the third day, with Pakistan on 103 for two in their second innings, trailing South Africa by just one run.
Ashwell Prince and Herschelle Gibbs resumed South Africa’s first innings on the overnight total of 254 for four, with five overs left before the second new ball. Although the morning session claimed seven wickets on Friday, Prince and Gibbs appeared totally unmoved, and the new ball served only to make it easier for them to send the ball racing to the boundary.
It was only in the over before lunch that Pakistan were able to achieve a breakthrough, when Prince was stumped by Kamran Akmal off Danish Kaneria for 138 — one run short of his highest score of 139 against Zimbabwe. He batted for just less than six hours, faced 214 balls and hit 19 boundaries. The partnership between Prince and Gibbs was worth 213 runs in exactly four hours.
The first milestone of the morning came when their partnership passed 141, giving them the highest fifth-wicket partnership by any team at Supersport Park. The previous record was set by Graham Thorpe and Andrew Flintoff of England in 2004/05.
Prince went on to reach his sixth Test century, which had taken him four hours and 37 minutes and included 13 boundaries. He has now scored a century against six different countries.
There was a roar of approval from the crowd when South Africa passed Pakistan’s first-innings total of 313, and soon after that came the double-century partnership between Prince and Gibbs. It took them less than four hours and they faced 309 deliveries.
”We needed a big partnership, and luckily we got it,” said Gibbs. ”It helped having Ash at the other end. He’s hitting the ball better and playing better than I have ever seen him play.
”We would have liked a lead of about 150 or 200. There’ll be a lot of work to do tomorrow [Sunday]. The first session will be very important.”
Prince said he thought his century was one of his most fluent. ”I hit three or four boundaries in my first 20 runs, and that got me off to a good start. Also, the outfield at Centurion helps — you don’t have to hit the ball too hard; you just have to time it and it goes to the boundary.”
After a morning in which South Africa were firmly in control, the session after lunch belonged to Pakistan, with South Africa’s last five wickets falling for just 62 runs.
Gibbs fell short of what would have been his 15th Test century — and his first in 34 consecutive Test innings — when he was given out lbw to Rana Naved for 94. Naved also picked up the wicket of Andre Nel, while Kaneria got rid of Mark Boucher and Paul Harris.
However, it was strike-bowler Mohammad Asif who mopped up the South African tail, when Makhaya Ntini was caught at second slip by Younis Khan for five. This gave Asif his third five-wicket haul in seven Tests for Pakistan.
South Africa, bowled out for 417, had a first-innings lead of 104 — not the massive lead they had hoped for.
With storm clouds gathering, Jacques Kallis claimed the first scalp when Mohammad Hafeez was caught in the slips by Graeme Smith for 15. Kallis claimed another 30 minutes later when Yasir Hameed was caught behind by Boucher for nine. Imran Farhat and Younis Khan increased the run rate, and by close of play, were scoring at about three an over.
When bad light stopped play with 13 overs to go, Farhat was not out on 41 and Younis had 32.
Prince said he thought the match was evenly poised. ”We want to restrict Pakistan to a lead of less than 200 runs. If we can do that, I’m sure the guys will be confident of chasing down a target.” — Sapa