“To be honest, I had problems the whole game,” he said after matchday. “I feel like I haven’t been as consistent as I should be in terms of line and length – if that makes sense. Everything didn’t go right.”

This assessment applies to parts of the bowling in all three innings completed so far. In Pakistan’s first game, Kagiso Rabada was by far South Africa’s most threatening attack but was left without a wicket, while Corbin Bosch admitted that some of his wickets came from balls that the batters did not have to play.

In South Africa’s first innings, Pakistan were listless at times, offering too many boundary balls, first to Aiden Markram and later to Bosch. Then, in Pakistan’s second innings, Rabada and Dane Paterson initially struggled for rhythm and Bosch was wide before Temba Bavuma turned to Jansen to make something happen.

Jansen’s fifth ball was short and wide and Babar Azam, who had just reached his fifty, could not resist. He slashed it deep where Bavuma had positioned Bosch, and Jansen received his first gift after Christmas. Two overs later, Mohammad Rizwan caught a short ball flying down leg and followed it up with a half-hearted pull to be caught behind. In the following over, Salman Agha hit a leaden-footed full ball to Agha. There are questions about the shot selections of all three batters, but South Africa always expected them to choose these types of shots.

“We know that most of their batters like to play a positive brand of Test cricket. So we know that if we stick to our lines and lengths, they might leave one or two (balls), but their tendency is for them to play one,” Jansen said. “We always knew we were in the game and we always knew something was going to happen.”

The funniest thing was yet to come when Saud Shakeel received a full throw in the 84th minute that hit him on the pad as he missed an attempted flick. Shakeel was hit under the bend of the knee, which says something about where Jansen was trying to throw the ball before he got it slightly wrong.

“I wanted to go for the yorker but I probably missed it by a shin’s length,” Jansen said. “At the end of the day, people can say whatever they want. (But) he missed it and it’s a wicket. That’s why I’m happy about it.”

There was laughter all around when Jansen said this, which shows how entertaining this Test was, although the quality of cricket was questionable at times. With both teams playing some underwhelming cricket, a competition emerged, although perhaps not an elite one. That was saved for the final 40 minutes in which, despite defending just 147 players, the Pakistan seamers displayed sharp opening remarks as the clouds gathered overhead, staring down South Africa’s increasingly fraying nerves.

Three of their top four were dismissed because the new ball was bowled at the right length, which was just short of a good length, although the Pakistan quicks also benefited from the extra bounce and pressure provided. Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs all had their final say in this game and South Africa couldn’t be too unhappy with what happened to them.

“The three wickets they got were three good balls, so it’s not like we threw our wickets away,” Jansen said. “This is not intended to give the impression that things are getting better. But as long as they get us out with good balls, there’s only so much you can do as a batter. You can only play what you see – you can’t preempt or prevent. “Think about what you want to do – because you’re going to get yourself in trouble with that pitch.”

“Once the ball gets older it’s a lot easier to hit and it’s a nice scoring pitch. So with the new ball it will definitely move sideways, and then one or two balls will shoot up and one or two balls will also stay low.”

Marco Jansen on the SuperSport Park pitch

If Jansen ends up batting in the chase it could mean South Africa are in trouble, even though they are batting deep and he has a plan.

“My mental position is to be as disciplined as possible for as long as possible. We know the new ball will be pretty tough here, especially in the second innings of the game,” he said. “Once the ball gets older it’s a lot easier to hit and it’s a nice scoring pitch. So with the new ball it will definitely move sideways, and then one or two balls will shoot up and one or two balls will also stay low.

“From my perspective, if the ball goes up, just get your hands out of the way, and then if the ball stays a little low, just stay nice and close with your racket next to your pad. Those two are the most difficult ones. “We’re used to the balls moving sideways, so I think those will be the challenges for tomorrow.

Explained in pure cricket terms, it sounds like South Africa have a good sense of what is required of them. But there will be much more than just bat against ball on Sunday. There is the expectation of securing that win to reach next year’s World Test Championship final and the pressure of being part of a chase as a South African. You might be thinking that there is some cushion too because South Africa only needs to get a win in this Test and the next. But putting yourself in a must-win situation at Newlands will involve a number of mind games.

South Africa will want to finish the job here, but to do so they will need the kind of steel that hasn’t yet been seen at SuperSport Park. But with so much at stake, it might be time for something we haven’t seen before.