South Africa lead the third and final Castle Lager by 102 runs at tea on what has been an eventful day here.
Pakistan were bowled out for 185, handing South Africa a lead of 77 runs, to which they’ve added 25 for the loss of Dean Elgar’s wicket at the interval on a boiling hot day at the Bullring.
Aiden Markram continued to look in fine touch and will resume on 17 alongside Hashim Amla, who is not out on 1.
Following a morning session in which they dropped four catches, the hosts added a fifth just two balls after lunch, with Elgar putting down a difficult chance off the outside edge of Sarfraz Ahmed. The Pakistan captain in the company Babar Azam then took the attack to the much vaunted South African bowling line-up, hammering 50 runs in the first 30 minutes of the afternoon session as they sought to make rapid inroads into the deficit.
Sarfraz took advantage of the width on offer from the South Africans registering an 18th Test half-century off only 38 balls. However two balls after reaching the landmark, he was dismissed, a poor attempt at gliding the ball over the slips, saw him direct the delivery from Kagiso Rabada towards Amla at first slip –where the ball was deflected up before being comfortably held.
That wicket seemed to deflate the Pakistanis and Duane Olivier rushed through the lower order dismissing Babar for 49 when he mistimed a hook, which he followed with the wicket of Fahim Ashraf, caught off the top edge by Zubayr Hamza at shortleg.
The dismissal of Mohammad Amir saw Olivier register his third five wicket haul of the series, a stunning physical effort given the conditions. He finished with figures of 5/51 in 13 overs which also saw him reach 21 wickets for the series, surpassing Dale Steyn’s mark from six year ago for the highest number of wickets in a three Test series between these two countries.
South Africa started their second innings with 44 minutes remaining in the session, losing Elgar for 5 at the start of the fifth over with Amir finding the inside edge of the bat, the ball brushing Elgar’s thigh before being caught by Sarfraz. The decision had to be referred to TV umpire Bruce Oxenford after being given not out by Joel Wilson and was over-turned.
Three balls earlier Abbas had an appeal upheld by Oxenford for lbw after Markram got a feint inside edge onto his front pad.