The game is very nicely poised in the balance with all three results possible. The Test is heading for a fascinating finish. Misbah and Azhar recovered well for Pakistan after Peterson did the damage early on in the day with the bat.

South Africa Vs Pakistan: Test 2 - Day 2:

Toss: South Africa won the toss and elected to field.

Teams

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq*, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed†, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Tanvir Ahmed

South Africa: GC Smith*, AN Petersen, HM Amla, JH Kallis, AB de Villiers†, F du Plessis, D Elgar, VD Philander, RJ Peterson, DW Steyn, M Morkel

Day 3

Morning Session

On a sunny morning at the Newlands, both the teams came out looking to make their mark in this test match. Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal started of the proceedings for Pakistan and bowled well, but failed to take a wicket straight away. After half an hour in to the morning session, the first chance came for Pakistan to take a wicket, but Pakistan failed to accept the chance, as Azhar Ali dropped AB de Villiers at gully. However, it wasn’t long before another chance presented itself and this time Pakistan accepted it, as Younis Khan accepted the catch of Elgar and that meant that Ajmal picked his sixth wicket of the innings. After a relatively strong resistance from AB de Villiers and Peterson, the second new ball did the trick, as Mohammad Irfan picked up the big wicket of AB de Villiers.

Irfan was denied a second wicket due to a umpiring error, he had Philander caught behind, but the umpire gave no-ball, when it actually wasn't. Peterson and Philander batted well to keep their wickets intact and the morning session one would say belonged to South Africa, as they scored more than a 100 runs losing only two wickets.


Afternoon Session

South Africa came out looking to carry on where they left off and Peterson did exactly that, as he continued to dominate with the bat. The left-hander found support from Philander 22(43) and Dale Steyn 10 (13) as he looked to push South Africa beyond Pakistan's 338. He got them close, just 12 runs shy as he was eventually caught on the boundary by Umar Gul off Mohammad Hafeez. His score of 84, off just 106 balls was vital, both for the runs contributed and his management of Ajmal showing a strategy can be devised against the star spinner.

Earlier Philander fell to a Mohammad Irfan, who found some characteristic extra bounce off a good length which managed to square up the batsman and the ball looped to the gully fielder Jamshed, who took the catch. Irfan topped off a good spell by picking up Dale Steyn as he bowled a lifter across which caught his outside edge as he ended with 3 wickets. Morkel remained not out on 8, which included two boundaries.

Pakistan came out in the second innings and lost Hafeez second ball, who continued his terrible run on this tour. He was caught plumb in front of all three stumps as Steyn cleverly bowled an inswinger after bowling a number of outswingers as the batsman expected it to go away. He did sit out the practice match played between this and the first Test and that decision does not look like the right one, as it didn't at the time. Jamshed was out soon after, to Vernon Philander, also lbw, and Pakistan found themselves 7/2, with both openers failing to trouble the scorers.

Azhar Ali played some confident shots and Younis Khan supported well to take Pakistan to 25/2 and Tea without any further alarms.


Evening Session

Azhar and Younus looked to build a much needed partnership after tea. Azhar had a scare with the score on 41 when a confident LBW appeal by Peterson was reviewed by the fielding side; however, the impact was outside the off stump. It didn't, however, take long for the South Africans to get the break through as Steyn manage to dismiss Younus when an inside edge off a short ball outside off stump crashed into the wickets, with the score on 45.

Misbah looked nervous and under pressure when he came to the wicket and eventually got off the mark with a well timed cut shot for four off his 18th delivery. In the 25th over of the innings Morne Morkel's hamstring injury seemed to have finally caught up with him, as after bowling one ball in the over he had to go off the field.

Azhar and Misbah looked solid at the crease, however the runs completely dried up. The ball was also starting to spin more as the Pakistani batsmen looked to somehow get the lead over the 200 mark to give their spinners the best possible chance.

Azhar was given an extra life when he smashed a delivery back at Peterson who put down a tough chance off his own bowling as lead crawled to 71.

In the 31st over Misbah decided that something had to be done to release the pressure as he struck Peterson straight back over the bowlers head for a huge six. Another five quite overs went by in which Pakistan only managed eight runs, before Misbah decided to get down on one knee and slog sweep Peterson for his second massive six, this time, over cow corner.

Azhar guided a ball in the vacant third man spot for four off of Vernon to push Pakistans lead to the 100 mark. With only an over or two left in the day Misbah decided to have a go again, as once more he slog swept Peterson for his 3rd six of the innings to bring up Pakistans 100.

Misbah and Azhar safely negotiated the final over f the day as Pakistan ended the day on exactly 100 with the loss of 3 wickets.

Fall of Wickets

Morning Session
164-6 (Elgar, 69.1 ov)
210-7 (AB de Villiers, 80.5 ov)


Afternoon Session
8-277 (Philander, 94.3 ov)
9-303 (Steyn, 98.6 ov)
10-326 (Peterson, 102.1 ov)

1-0 (Mohammad Hafeez, 0.2 ov)
2-7 (Nasir Jamshed, 1.3 ov)

EveningSession
3-45 (Younus Khan 15.5 ov)


Summary
The game is very nicely poised in the balance with all three results possible. The Test is heading for a fascinating finish. Misbah and Azhar recovered well for Pakistan after Peterson did the damage early on in the day with the bat. These two at the crease will have to look to bat on tomorrow to help pose a challenging total for South Africa. Pakistan will be hoping to bat until at least tea tomorrow to build a good score an also give Ajmal the best possible chance on a day 5 wicket!