Boxing day test in Centurion may be over by Friday
Chances are good that the Boxing Day Test between the Proteas and Pakitsan, played at SuperSport Park in Centurion, may be completed on the third day of action on Friday.
The former Hoërskool Centurion pupil, Duanne Olivier, continued on the second day of the Boxing Day Test between the Proteas and Pakistan with his devastating bowling and played a huge role in limiting Pakistan to less than 200 runs in their second innings.
This means that Faf du Plessis and his Proteas have three full days to score 149 runs to win the test.
This also means of course that the odds are very good that the game could be completed on day three (Friday).
Olivier completed an 11-wicket haul in the match, Kagiso Rabada went past his half-century of Test wickets in the calendar year, and Dale Steyn took his 50th wicket against Pakistan as 15 wickets again fell on the second day of the match at SuperSport Park on Thursday.
Nine of those wickets fell in the final session of play for just 90 runs as Pakistan were bowled out shortly before the close, leaving the Proteas a victory target of 149 runs on what seems certain to be the final day tomorrow.
This was as a result of the Proteas taking a lead of 42 runs on the first innings thanks to Temba Bavuma’s half-century (53 off 87 balls) and 45 from Quinton de Kock (53 balls) which could have been a lot more had he not run out of reliable partners.
The Proteas would have been happy to have scored 96 in the morning session even if it came at the cost of their remaining five first innings wickets.
Then Pakistan looked as though they would set the Proteas a very tough target as Imam-ul-Haq (57 off 96 balls) and Shan Masud (65 off 120 balls) shared a second wicket partnership that took Pakistan to 100/1 at tea.
As has been the case so often in this match it was Olivier who started the collapse by dismissing Imam and Pakistan’s senior batsman, Azhar Ali, in the space of four balls, thus opening up the rest of the order.
Shan continued to fight until he was 9th man out but nobody was able to hang around with him for any length of time.
Olivier took five wickets for the second time in the match to finish with a career best 11/96, the 10th best match figures for South Africa of all time.
Rabada picked up three to take his total for the calendar year past 50 in only 10 matches and Steyn picked up the other 2 to take his total against Pakistan to exactly 50 in 11 matches.
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