Bosch's batting heroics, late strikes put SA in control

The opening Test continued to turn towards South Africa's favour after Aiden Markram scored 89 and Corbin Bosch's 81* to take the hosts to 301 and giving them a 90-run lead at the innings break. Saim Ayub and Shan Masood notched up a 49-run opening stand but the South African bowlers picked up three wickets late on the day to leave the visitors two runs behind at 88 for 3 in Centurion.

Pakistan began their innings with a flurry of boundaries as Saim Ayub flicked one for four before following it with a drive through point to the fence off Kagiso Rabada. Bosch was given the new ball in the second innings and was met with the same treatment by the young Ayub with two boundaries to unsettle him.

The visitors had raced away to 48 in 10 overs before South Africa's talisman Rabada induced Ayub to play a booming drive after pitching one up but the batter instead had his off-stump dismantled. First change Dane Paterson honed in on his lines testing Babar Azam and managed to square him up a couple of times but the out-of-form batter got lucky with some edges falling short of the slip cordon.

His partner and skipper Masood, however, was not as fortunate as he poked a ball outside off by Marco Jansen to Tristan Stubbs at third slip as Pakistan lost both their openers still 20 runs behind. Things got worse for the tourists as Kamran Ghulam edged one to gully. Saud Shakeel came out with intent as he carved two boundaries to bring the deficit down to two runs before bad light stopped play late on the day.

Before South Africa picked the three crucial wickets in Pakistan's second foray with the bat in Centurion, debutant Bosch's crucial knock alongside Markram's half-century helped them past 300. Bosch began his innings with couple of boundaries off Khurram Shahzad. He then counter-attacked Naseem with a streaky boundary before guiding the ball to third-man.

Bosch brought up his 50 on debut, becoming the first South African to achieve a double of a four-wicket haul and 50-plus score on Test debut for South Africa.

Brief Scores: Pakistan 211 & 88/3 (Shan Masood 28, Saim Ayub 27; Marco Jansen 2-17, Kagiso Rabada 1-30) trail South Africa 301 (Aiden Markram 89, Corbin Bosch 81*) by 2 runs.