They came close – very close – but Pakistan’s destiny in South Africa has not changed just yet
Danyal Rasool29-Dec-2024Centurion is a great place to watch Test cricket, but even if you’re not particularly interested, there’s enough to keep you entertained. The queues for cheesy chips snaked out on most days, and more than 2 million rands of alcohol were sold. Couples lounged around the embankments shading themselves under giant umbrellas. Over by the scoreboard, a few people were jogging on the spot, raising money for a charitable cause. Unsupervised children of varying ages – invariably wearing the wildly popular fluorescent pink ODI shirt – set up their own games of cricket, scurrying back into the ground whenever a cheer went up to investigate if news was good or bad.But once lunch was over on day 4, that area which encircles SuperSport Park was no more a hive of activity. Nearly everyone had returned from the concession stands, those dozing under the umbrellas sat up. Even the children had packed away their little plastic bats and balls, aware this was a tense finish, but unsure why a multi-decade history of trauma was writ large on their parents’ faces.***Mohammad Abbas is bowling; he was bowling before lunch, and he was bowling yesterday. At this point, it seems like he’s been bowling for longer than he was out of the Test side. He might have been bowling since 2007, the last time Pakistan won a Test match in South Africa, because Pakistan have effectively been playing the same Test match here since.Related
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There are reasons South Africa cannot win this Test, primarily because it matters in a wider context. They are a handful of runs away from making a World Test Championship final, and a crack at yet another piece of silverware. They are – or were – in a winning position, and having begun to squander it, the path of heartbreaking failure looks like it has locked beneath their feet.But expecting Pakistan to win Tests in South Africa is a bit like being believing a steady diet of cheese will cure gout. That it failed to do so doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the cheese. It’s just not what cheese does.Mohammad Abbas had single-handedly threatened to put South Africa’s qualification to the WTC final on hold•Gallo ImagesThis makes it a contest of a movable force against a stoppable object, because any world where Pakistan win this sort of Test in South Africa turns the narrative upside down. The plot armour that has scripted a Pakistan defeat this Test appears nigh-on impenetrable. When South Africa have bowled poorly, Pakistan just offered their wickets up. When South African wickets were falling in a bunch, Pakistan spread out their fields, threw in an hour of indifferent bowling, and ensured there was enough “cushion”, as Shan Masood called it, for a South African win to still be believably scripted. Masood pointed out this had been an issue with Pakistan in every innings. He just meant this match, but he might as well have extended that characterisation to about half the Tests Pakistan had ever played in this country.But boy, is Abbas trying to change all that. After a first innings where his exclusion from the Pakistan side appeared vindicated, he’s working on reversing more than just one narrative. Every other over, he takes off his floppy hat, almost on autopilot, and walks over to the bowler’s end. It appears human function doesn’t resume after the over begins either, so metronomic is Abbas’s end-product. Eighty-six of the 117 balls he sent down across the innings hit a hard length outside off stump, giving South Africa no breathing room from his end and picking up half his wickets. For a player who has got more than half of his Test dismissals hitting the stumps, a further 17 threatened off stump, and produced the other three.For much of the morning, though, he probes in vain, as South Africa fend off the inevitable stutter Pakistan, as well as a taut South African crowd – more than 5000 of whom have turned up on a glorious summer day – are convinced will come. Pakistan review one that whooshes past Bavuma’s bat without success, and South Africa successfully have an lbw overturned when Bavuma is convinced he got an inside edge. Abbas’ Hampshire coach Graeme Welch has encouraged him to add the bouncer to his game, and when he sends one down from time to time, it’s a mean one, rearing up high and drawing as much bounce as the faster bowlers have extracted.South Africa are cheered on by their fans as they seal their spot in the WTC final•AFP/Getty ImagesMysteriously, though, Bavuma’s ability to tell when he’s got inside edges is selective, and when, for some reason, he strides out of his crease and tries to whack Abbas over midwicket, he misses. Mohammad Rizwan appeals, but the spot where he stands may as well be a coiled spring for how often he goes up. The umpire thinks he’s got an edge, and even though it’s only clipped the flap of his right pocket, the South African captain walks off.The joy in Abbas’ expressions when he picks up a wicket is always mixed with an air of surprise, as if wondering why the batter did whatever they did, because Abbas is always doing the same thing. Length, top of off, target the pads, look for the outside edge. Having deprived him for much of the morning, it does feel like the batters are doing something different, bats jutting out away from their bodies, outside edges as if by magnetic force flying towards the ball. David Bedingham, and Corbin Bosch, who weary Pakistan supporters were convinced would hit the winning runs to round off the torment, fall off successive balls, and South Africa’s curse looks set to prove stronger than Pakistan’s history.For Pakistan, the specific details of what happen next barely matter. For the record, Naseem Shah bowls a loose over, and Rabada rides his luck. Like a long-forgotten plot point, Aamer Jamal, who had been sending a few down during the lunch break, emerges, beginning with a no-ball and ending with two boundaries. The field is spread far out as Marco Jansen – who has until now averaged 6.33 with bat this year – and Rabada pick up singles at will, casually interspersing them between the boundaries.Abbas produces a Rabada outside edge that Rizwan was standing too far back to take, but Pakistan recognise it is merely the script’s attempt at a final jump scare as it inexorably takes its course through to its denouement. It was Rabada and Jansen here, just like it was Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla in the past, or Jacques Kallis and Ashwell Prince further back. The cast may have changed, but destiny has not. Pakistan still must keep their appointment in Samarra.