It was a day of mixed emotions for Pakistan. They started the day on a decent note. The first session was a neutral one without any team having an upper-hand. But Pakistan’s stranglehold over the match became strong in the third session when they managed to get the South Africana all out in just an hour of the third session. South Africa managed to score 220 runs. At one point, they looked to score much more than that. South Africa had opted to bat after winning the toss. Skipper Quinton de Kock must have expected more runs than this at the toss.


At lunch, South Africa were 179-6 which would have made the visitors a tad bit happy after losing five wickets under 140. Dean Elgar was the top scorer for South Africa with 58 runs. He was not struggling against the spinners like the batsman at the other end. He scored a couple of boundries of Shaheen Afridi that must have boosted his confidence, but in the process played an extravagant shot away from his body to throw away his wicket in a cheap manner. South Africa would not be extremely happy about their performance after Tea. Pakistan wrapped up the SA innings in a quick time.


Having lost three wickets after Tea for 16. Yasir Shah ended up with three wickets while Shaheen Afridi finished the innings by claiming No. 11 Ngidi, just as he had dismissed opener Aiden Markram. This ensured South Africa do not score beyond a reasonable trailing score.


Pakistan maintaining their Mercurial nature:


Pakistan team after displaying a good show with the ball stumbled with the bat. It looked as if they were maintaining their image of being an ‘unpredictable’ team. Pakistan were 33-4 at Stumps on Day 1. Imran Butt, Abid Ali, Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi failed to go past the two figure mark. Rabada was pick of the bowlers for visitors while Nortje and Maharaj picked up one wicket each.


Match Summary:


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Stumps in Karachi 🏏<br><br>14 wickets have fallen today 😲<br><br>Pakistan are 33/4, trailing by 187 runs!<a >#PAKvSA</a> ➡️ <a >https://t.co/45UQifG17K</a> <a >pic.twitter.com/peIrMoaWmF</a></p>&mdash; ICC (@ICC) <a >January 26, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Day 2 will begin at Pakistan trailing by 187 runs with six wickets in hand.