RAWALPINDI: Captain Babar Azam and Fawad Alam revived Pakistan with a century stand to be 145-3 at tea after South Africa reduced them to 22-3 on the first day of the second cricket Test on Thursday.
Babar raised his 16th Test half-century and was unbeaten on 77 with a dozen boundaries while left-handed Alam continued his rich batting form to reach 42 off 138 balls.
Babar and Alam were sharing a 123-run stand.
Pakistan was in trouble early after left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj took two wickets in 10 balls and fast bowler Andrich Nortje had Abid Ali caught at forward short leg.
But Babar and Alam put the innings back on track as the ball got older in the middle session on a dry pitch which eased out for batting.
Babar caressed the offside field through some crisp cover drives and was equally good off his back foot against the three fast bowlers.
The skipper completed his fifty with a flicked boundary off Wiaan Mulder — the only change the Proteas made from the team which lost the first Test by seven wickets at Karachi last week.
Alam scored a gritty century in the first Test and continued to frustrate South Africa with his open chested batting stance.
South Africa had an injury scare when spinner George Linde left the field in the first session after the left-arm spinner tried to stop a hard drive off Babar off his own bowling. Linde didn’t sustain a fracture but required stitches on his little finger.
Linde didn’t return to the field in the middle session and South Africa management said he was subject to further testing.
Earlier, Proteas’ skipper Quinton de Kock read the dry pitch well as the visitors snapped up three wickets for one run within four overs after Babar won the toss and elected to bat.
Maharaj could have dismissed Imran Butt off his first ball only to see Temba Bavuma miss a regulation slip catch. But Maharaj, who got plenty of spin and awkward bounce off the pitch, struck in his third over and the eighth of the day when Butt, on 15, got a thin edge and de Kock hold onto a sharp catch behind the wickets.
Azhar Ali struggled for nine deliveries and fell for a duck when Maharaj trapped the former Pakistan skipper off a full-pitched delivery that skidded through the right-hander.
Aiden Markram then snapped a sharp reflex catch of Abid Ali on 6 at forward short leg off Nortje’s short-pitched delivery to have Pakistan 22-3.
Pakistan retained the playing XI which won the first Test. Left-arm spinner Nauman Ali, who became the oldest Test cricketer in 72 years to take a 5-for in an innings on Test debut, got another chance on a dry pitch similar to Karachi. Nauman, 34, and leg spinner Yasir Shah shared 14 wickets.
