2.3. South Africa’s counterpunch leaves game on a knife edge

Ibrahim Moiz

16/2/2013

A thrilling South Africa counterattack first from the lower middle and then with the new ball left the Cape Town Test wide open after the third day. Allrounder Robin Peterson swiped a lusty 84 to propel South Africa to within 12 runs of Pakistan’s first-innings total, before the seamers terminated Pakistan’s top order, leaving the visitors struggling to climb out of the hole as the day finished with honours more or less even.

Peterson’s boundary-laden half-century, his first in a decade and his career-best score, counterpunched the overnight advantage out of Pakistan’s hands. And when Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn, the expert new-ball pair, removed Pakistan’s openers for a duck apiece the advantage had swung full circle, before Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq dragged it slowly back Pakistan’s way.

The tone for a more positive South Africa approach had been set by the lively AB de Villiers, who accelerated swiftly in the morning to a bright 61 (seven fours). Shelled at gully by Azhar off the unfortunate Umar Gul, de Villiers rubbed salt into the bowler’s wound, creaming him through extra cover and then arching back into a daring uppercut straight over the keeper’s head. Though Saeed Ajmal, so excellent in this match, had his and Pakistan’s sixth wicket when Dean Elgar edged to Younus Khan, ending a 55-run stand, the visitors were unable to grab their wickets in clusters.

The towering debutant Mohammad Irfan, easily the fastest and most hostile of the Pakistan attack, lumbered in to extricate de Villiers, who popped a leading edge to mid-on and gave the seven-foot left-hander a maiden wicket. But Peterson, who has only recently cemented his place in the South African lineup, snatched back the momentum. He was assisted by Philander, who was very unfortunate that umpire Steve Davis, who has had a wretched series, wrongly no-balled Irfan when Philander edged behind to Sarfraz Ahmed without scoring.

As it happened Peterson and Philander wrested control with a gallivanting late-order stand of 67. Peterson’s rapid 84 contained as many as 15 fours as the innings’ complexion transformed; he leant into sweeps and cuts off Ajmal, advanced to swing a full-blooded clout over Mohammad Hafeez’s head and then danced down again to loft the off-spinner high and handsome over extra cover. Gul’s frustration when an inside edge scooted past leg-stump to the boundary was compounded when he was then carved down to long-off, while Peterson dashed past fifty by first unfurling a picturesque straight drive past Tanvir Ahmed and then clouting a wide full-toss square.

Philander himself had dispatched a couple of disdainful blows off Irfan before the gigantic quick responded with a rib-jarring ball that was fended to a tumbling Nasir Jamshed on the off side. Even so the runs continued to flow at an alarming rate, Peterson crashing boundaries around the ground, even ducking into a deadly Irfan bouncer that was edged over the keeper’s head, and the tail-enders managing to skew a few as well before the left-hander finally holed out to Gul at wide long-on off Hafeez.

Again the Pakistan openers had no answer to the new ball, both going for ducks as Steyn nipped one into Hafeez and Philander wobbled another into Jamshed (7 for 2). Azhar Ali began with rare intent, but his was a curiously paced knock—flourishing early against the new ball, where he scored 23 off as many balls, and then completely shutting down shop against Peterson’s spin as he managed just 22 off the next 112. The caution was understandable after Steyn had bowled Younus off an inner edge, bowing the batsman back to the pavilion with a classy flourish, but it was perhaps taken to an extreme as even less-than-threatening balls were obdurately dead-batted.

The captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, was equally stubborn in defence, but when he opened his broad shoulders he showed, again, that he could pack a real punch; an unbeaten 36 in 81 balls included three mighty sixes swung between long-off and midwicket. Slowly but steadily Azhar and Misbah rebuilt the Pakistan innings, and at 112 for 3 the game is poised on a knife edge.