Under overcast skies in Centurion, being bowled out for 211 may not be all that bad, but it is a missed chance

Danyal Rasool26-Dec-2024There are names in cricket which will mean something specific to followers of Pakistan cricket, and almost nothing to anyone else. William Somerville. Nathan Hauritz. Duane Olivier. Marcus North. Others, who later went on to achieve greater prominence, only got their start belonging to this genre of player. Kyle Abbott, Adil Rashid, Colin de Grandhomme, Ajaz Patel, Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed all took five wickets on debut against Pakistan, at a time when it was never clear if these bowlers had any business belonging to the five-wicket debut club. At SuperSport Park, Pakistan took little time adding a couple more to the oeuvre: Corbin Bosch and Dane Paterson.That Pakistan were bowled out in about two sessions on the first day in Centurion is unremarkable; better batting line-ups than this have folded more cheaply in South Africa. Pakistan were once shot out for 49 at the Wanderers, though it was Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Jacques Kallis who took those wickets. They folded for 106 on another occasion, though Allan Donald and Fanie de Villiers split those ten. When they were skittled inside 43.1 overs for 157 in 2007, Makhaya Ntini and Kallis were the chief protagonists.So 211 is hardly a disgrace; indeed, it is perhaps even acceptable. But offering up nine wickets to Bosch and Paterson may be less so. Though Pakistan had not crossed 200 in the first innings in South Africa since 2013, being satisfied with that total is a bit like going to a buffet and walking out after grabbing a cappuccino. It may have solved the immediate need, but there was so much more available. The invitation to that buffet had somehow been secured; the hard part had been done.Related

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Bosch began the way a nervous debutant on Boxing Day might, with a real loosener of a half volley wide outside off stump. So wide, in fact, that a man as lanky as Shan Masood had to reach for it. And why wouldn’t he? Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen were seen off; Rabada would be the pick of the South African bowlers, and yet somehow end up wicketless. This was the time to feast. It was Pakistan’s highest opening partnership all year, having been put in to bat on a hostile Centurion surface. Masood has spoken multiple times about how you get value for your shots here, and these were effectively runs being offered on a discount.There was little wrong with going after that expansive drive, but the execution went horribly wrong. Until then, the batters had been beaten 11 times, survived one lbw shout on umpire’s call, and popped a couple into unlikely gaps. An hour after surviving some of the most testing fast bowling on one of the more trying grounds, Pakistan had given away the breakthrough to a first-ball half-tracker from a nervous debutant.Pakistan continued to make a hash of working their way through the buffet table. Babar Azam received one short and wide from Paterson, and hung his bat out so carelessly that he might as well have been holding out a stray steak knife in a crowded room. It had similarly lethal consequences; he would be dismissed from the room before he had begun to get his money’s worth.Corbin Bosch exults after bagging Shan Masood with his first ball in Tests•AFP/Getty ImagesTime and again, the day followed the same pattern. Rabada threatened without finding the end product, but there was, in truth, little else to fear from the remainder of the attack. Jansen was largely ineffectual, and even Pakistan in this kind of profligate mood weren’t giving him any wickets. ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data showed the batters were in control against 78% of his deliveries, the highest against any bowler from either side all day.It is something of a mystery, though, how Bosch didn’t go similarly unrewarded. Pakistan’s control percentage against him wasn’t much better at 74%, and he sent down 38 balls – nearly half of his entire innings – bowling wide outside off stump or down leg. But he must have been exceptionally nice this year, because Pakistan filled his Christmas stocking right to the brim.Saud Shakeel looked to have decided on a whim he no longer wanted to be known as the most conservative batter in the side, and raced out of the blocks with 14 runs in his first five balls; it is his fastest start in any format. When Bosch sent one down that truly deserved to be put away, though, Shakeel gloved it through to the wicketkeeper, his brief Boxing Day fling with belligerence over before it ever blossomed.Even the mild-mannered Kamran Ghulam, having kept his temperament in check and finding a way to balance positivity and responsibility, could not ultimately resist the lure of a hoick. Having held his own against a simmering Rabada, he ultimately hacked at Paterson, only for the top edge to go straight to none other than Rabada himself.Dane Paterson repeatedly did damage to Pakistan, picking up a five-wicket haul•Gallo ImagesAamer Jamal was having more success with this strategy; it is a mark of South Africa’s indifference with the ball over large periods that he and Salman Agha wrangled their way back into putting Pakistan into another respectable position, approaching 200 for 6 by tea. Ultimately, though, Jamal found a similarly unseemly way to fall to the debutant, playing with a horizontal bat to a ball too close to cut and chopping it on. Pakistan were unable to help clumping their dismissals together to undo all the good work that preceded them, as if regurgitating the contents of a recently consumed nutritious meal. They lost three wickets for no runs in eight balls, and the innings was effectively done.Though he was back to his positive self, Ghulam described the atmosphere in the dressing room as “excellent” after the day, and admitted there were regrets. “Rizzy [Mohammad Rizwan] and I were playing very well. We had it under control, and it was in our hands, and I should not have played the shot I did.”It is not, it would appear, the outcome of the day that disappoints Pakistan, but the waste of it. For 211 in Centurion under overcast skies means they may have left with full stomachs, but the nourishment on offer has not truly been taken advantage of.