Proteas Pindi Redemption
South Africa achieve a fairly tension-free eight-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second Test match played at Proteas Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium to tie the two-match Test series 1-1.
Pakistani bowlers had set up a modest target of just 68 runs to chase down, which South Africa accomplished with relative ease to win the match at 68 for two. South Africa’s captain, Aiden Markram, sped to 42 runs before being caught off spinner Noman Ali, who took a wicket with his first delivery.
At the end of the day, the game hinged on a dreadful collapse witnessed within the Pakistan batting unit before lunch during the fourth morning. After having resumed batting from the previous day on 94 for four, Pakistan was promptly all out for 138, having added only 44 runs to their overnight score.
The collapse started with some wayward bowling from the off-spinner.
Simon Harmer who, having correctly assessed the wear in the pitch at Proteas Rawalpindi, began to turn the ball significantly after the ball had worn a layer before a period of outfield drying. The 36-year-old enjoyed his first Test five-wicket haul, taking six for 50 in the match which also saw him achieve 1,000 first-class wickets.
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On the morning of Day 4, Harmer quickly struck a powerful blow to Pakistan’s hopes by getting rid of star batsman Babar Azam leg-before-wicket. Azam Proteas was dismissed on the fifth ball of the morning after reaching his 30th Test half-century. This triggered the ultimate collapse.
Azam’s wicket was a significant blow, given the fact that he was without a century since .
December 2022. The innings began to completely unfold for Pakistan after this breakthrough as the legs began to be dragged from under Pakistan.
This dislocation started through the spin attack of Simon Harmer. Harmer struck again nine runs later, as he found a way to remove the ever-dangerous Proteas Mohammad Rizwan for 18 caught by the close-in field of Tony de Zorzi.
During the following over from Harmer, he achieved the over 1000 first class wickets milestone, as he bowled Noman Ali, for a duck, who edged one to the keeper. He achieved this milestone in just his 235th first-class match.
Pakistan was falling towards total collapse at this stage, with Shaheen Shah Afridi.
run out without scoring, as fellow-spin bowler Keshav Maharaj cleaned up the tail, removing the last two wickets of Salman Agha (28) and Sajid Khan (13) to skittle Pakistan for 138.
In the Proteas Rawalpindi Test match, first innings of South Africa saw an impressive performance with the bat which built the foundation for a series opening victory supported by all-round showings by Senuran Muthusamy and Keshav Maharaj.
After South Africa’s innings at the first Test, Pakistan had been bowled out for 333 in their forwards innings with Shan Masood top-scoring with 87 .
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Saud Shakeel staging a respectable 66.
Pakistan clearly succumbed to South Africa’s spin attack with Maharaj leading the way with unbelievable figures of 7 for 102 in the eventual victory, with Simon Harmer and Kagiso Rabada contributing with 2 wickets and 1 wicket respectively.
Proteas After South Africa declared on 404 for their 2nd innings of the Test – left Pakistan chasing 71 runs, the Pakistan innings began and one of the significant partnerships coming from the tail end. That included a career best score of .89 not out from Muthusamy in support of Keshav who attacked brilliantly adding 71 from 61 balls.
For Pakistan the highlight of the had to be Asif Afridi who added a great deal in taking 6 wickets and completing with figures of 6 for .79.
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The Player of The Match going to
This result makes it even in the two-Test series (1-1), after Pakistan’s win in the (2025-27) ICC World Test Championship cycle at the Proteas Gaddafi Stadium Lahore where they won by 93 runs.
After being set 94-4 to chase, the batting side imploded and was bowled out for 44 for a total of 138 and Simon Harmer caused that implosion with his record-breaking off-spin match figures of 6-50 commencing with a first Test five-wicket haul on a pitch breaking down (having a target of 94-4). Harmer took his 1,000th first-class wicket in his 235th match having commenced 4 days prior on the spin bowler’s birthday.
The defining moment came early when Harmer successfully dismissed.
Babar Azam (who had just completed his 30th Test fifty) leg before wicket. Babar scored 51 and with his dismissal Pakistan’s hopes were all but dashed, and ended a poor streak of Test match centuries having last got to three figures in December 2022.
Following Harmer’s batting performance for Proteas South Africa, Shaheen Shah Afridi was run out after being bowled previously, leading to a total of nine wickets down for Pakistan with Keshav Maharaj grabbing both of the last two wickets – as Pakistan were bowled out.
South Africa then began chasing down the paltry total of 68 runs, successfully securing victory in just 24 overs. The final score would end up being South Africa 68/2 in leveling the Test series after two matches.
Proteas First Innings Summary:
Maharaj’s milestone of 7 wickets haul makes it easy for the home side.
Pakistan opened the Match and batted first by posting a respectable first-inning score of 333 runs with captain Shan Masood with 87 runs and good support from Saud Shakeel who scored 66 runs on relatively good batting conditions as well. It was South Africa’s turn to bat after Pakistan’s first inning posting 333 runs, however, in a remarkable day for South Africa.
Keshav Maharaj finished with the impressive wicket haul of 7 wickets on the day for 102 runs.
With running rate increasing after the lunch period and in light of previous good pace of play from the first day, Benedict Kamwenda and Latif Boys to chase the 404 target to win the match with Senuran Muthusamy who nearly half the runs scoring 89 runs and all-rounder Kagiso Rabada followed up with 71 runs to the end.
Proteas Match and Series Awards:
At the conclusion of the game, Keshav Maharaj was named.
Player of the Match following his brilliant performance in the first innings; Senuran Muthusamy finished off the series by earning his Player of the Series award for both Proteas Test Matches. Earlier in the ICC 2025-27 World Test Championship Series in the previous Test match, Pakistan had won the first Test Match at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, by 93 runs.
The two-match Test series, which was played between .
South Africa and Pakistan, ended in a thrilling finish, drawn champagne of a series of 1-1, South Africa winning the second Test Match of the Series. Since there was no deciding Test Match in the series between South Africa and Pakistan, drawing it historically, no trophy was shared, with Captains, Shan Masood and Aiden Markram lifting the trophy jointly both celebrating sportsmanship and honour of being Captains of the Test Match series.
- On the Team’s Response: “Proteas This is a really good response from them after the pressure we put them under in the first Test – the boys have been superb in this one.”
- On Team Confidence: “We are going to take a lot of confidence from this, and this is a good space to be in as a team.”
On Learning to Adapt: “We are still working progress on conditions like today, but different players stood up at different times.
- On the Strength of Spin Bowling: “People in South Africa would like to think we have good seamers and some spinners, but we are really good with the spinners also.”
- On Kagiso Rabada’s Batting: “I have seen KG (Kagiso Rabada) bat in the nets, but that was special, and he probably won us the game with the bat.”
- On Moving Forward: “We learned plenty of lessons from this sequence (even though their were no lessons to learn from the first Test), and then we are off to India.”
