SA vs Pak – 2nd Test – Stats – Shan Masood and Babar Azam raise the bar for the opening games
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SA vs Pak – 2nd Test – Stats – Shan Masood and Babar Azam raise the bar for the opening games

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

205 – The 205-run stand between Shan Masood and Babar Azam is the highest opening stand thereafter. The duo surpassed Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie’s opening stand of 204 runs against England at Lord’s in 2008 as South Africa struggled to salvage the Test for over two days. This is also Pakistan’s highest opening stand in South Africa and only the second stand to score more than 100 for the first wicket. Coincidentally, three of the last four total stands over 100 have extended to more than 200 runs.

1 – Masood became the first Pakistan captain to score a Test century in South Africa. Earlier, Salim Malik, who led Pakistan in the only Test in Johannesburg in 1995, was bowled out for 99. Inzamam-ul-Haq was left with 92 points when he batted at number eight in Gqeberha in 2007.

421 – South Africa’s first innings lead of 421 is their sixth highest in a Test and their highest against Pakistan. It is her third highest total after the first hit in a test. It is the sixth time for Pakistan that they have conceded a lead of more than 400 after completing the first innings – three times while batting first and three times while bowling first. It is also the fifth largest first innings leader in South Africa in the 21st century.

18 years 272 days – Kwena Maphaka became South Africa’s youngest debutant the moment he stepped onto the field. On the third day, when he took Babar’s wicket, he also became the youngest to take a wicket for South Africa in Test cricket.

3 – With a fifty in the second innings of the Centurion Test and two fifties here, it is the first time in Babar’s career that he has amassed three fifties in a row without turning any of them into a hundred. Babar doesn’t leave number three here. He was caught on the leg side in the first innings, the third time since 2022, the joint most for a Pakistan batsman alongside Saud Shakeel.

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