South Africa came out victorious over Pakistan in the second Test match played at Rawalpindi, winning by eight wickets and thereby confirming the series tie at 1-1 on Thursday. Simon Harmer, the veteran spinner, brought the spotlight on himself with a fantastic performance of 6-50, thus attaining the remarkable era of 1,000 first-class wickets. Pakistan batted very poorly in their second innings and their wickets fell almost like dominoes, with six being dismissed for only 44 runs to get bowled out at 138. The target of 68 runs was very smal,l and Aiden Markram's scoring of 42 very nicely took them to victory.
This match result caused Pakistan to drop from second to fifth place in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings, whereas South Africa advanced to the fourth position. The Australian team continues to hold the top position, followed by Sri Lanka and India, with the latter rising up to the third position.
Simon Harmer wrecks Pakistan as Babar’s drought continues
The morning session was totally Harmer’s domain as he exhibited a superb performance in spin bowling that knocked out the Pakistanis' expectations. He caught Babar Azam leg-before with the fifth ball of the day just after the captain had completed his 30th Test half-century, thus prolonging Babar’s century drought that started in December 2022.
After nine runs, Mohammad Rizwan was dismissed for 18 as he was caught close-in by Tony de Zorzi, and then Noman Ali was out for a duck marking Harmer’s 1,000th first-class wicket in his 235th match. The 36-year-old has become the fourth South African in history to do so, joining the likes of Mike Procter (1,417), Allan Donald (1,216), and Charlie Llewellyn (1,013).
As for the Pakistanis' lower order, they did not present much of a challenge; besides, Shaheen Afridi was run out without scoring, while Keshav Maharaj completed the innings by taking out Salman Agha (28) and Sajid Khan (13). Maharaj’s figures for the match read as 2-34 for the second innings and 7-102 for the first, thus making it a wonderful performance overall.
