In top gear
Centurion Quinton de Kock rattles Pakistan bowlers
SA remain on course to a comprehensive 3-0 victory and series whitewash over Pakistan after they restricted their visitors to 153/3 after 40 overs at close of day three of this third and final Test match on Sunday.
When the umpires called stumps‚ Pakistan still needed 228 runs to stun SA and win this match and their mission looks unlikely as they have already lost key batsmen in Imam-ulHaq‚ Shan Masood and Azhar Ali.
They will resume on the fourth day on Monday against the might of fast bowlers Dale Steyn‚ Kagiso Rabada‚ Vernon Philander and Duanne Olivier who have restricted them to less than 200 in four of the five completed innings so far.
Most of the batting work for Pakistan on Monday morning will be for unbeaten Asad Shafiq (48) and Babar Azam (17) who weathered the late fast bowling storm by SA on Sunday after they lost Ul-Haq‚ Masood and Azhar Ali for underwhelming scores of 35‚ 37 and 15 respectively.
Ul-Haq and Massod were victims of a fired up Steyn inside 17 overs of their chase after they were set a gigantic target of 381 by SA and the last wicket to fall on the day was that of Azhar who was mesmerized by a ripper from Olivier.
With the wicket of Ul-Hag‚ Steyn captured his 432nd wicket in 91 matches to move to 10th place on the leading Test wicket takers of all time and when he removed Massod he took his 50th wicket at Wanderers.
Pakistan managed to bowl the Proteas out for 303 with Quinton de Kock sizzling with a patient but stylish fourth century and his first in two years while Hashim Amla made a telling contribution of 71.
With the ball‚ Pakistan’s best bowlers were Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan with three scalps each‚ Mohammad Amir with two and Mohammad Abbas and Hasan Ali who took one each.