Taufeeq and Hafeez set strong base for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in first Test
Pakistan started off their innings in an emphatic manner as they mustered an unbeaten opening partnership of 88 runs to lay a solid foundation for the middle order to pile up a massive first innings total.
The openers Taufeeq Umar (36) and Mohammad Hafeez (48) combined together to give the South African bowlers a run for their money in the heat of Dubai. More surprisingly, the duo scored their runs at a striking run-rate of 4.4 runs per over.
Mohammad Hafeez’s brilliant performances in the One Day series earned him a place in the Test squad to face the Proteas. The right hand batsman has carried his form to the Test matches.
The left hand batsman, Taufeeq Umar, who is playing his first Test after four years hasn’t done badly up-till now. Taufeeq looked cool and composed in his short and measured innings as he showed great defence and technique to make the opposition bowlers
sweat.
Meanwhile, the South African bowling has struggled to make an impact with the new ball as none of the bowlers did something extraordinary with the ball. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Styen pitched it up to extract a fair amount of swing, but he wasn’t able to move the ball in the
air, and the batsmen jolted him for 28 runs in his five overs.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Morne-Morkel-c77722 has been disappointing in his first spell as he delivered it short and wide of the off-stump. As a result, his four expensive overs cost him 28 runs.
Jacques Kallis and Paul Harris dried up the runs as they bowled some accurate overs. The duo only conceded 23 runs in 10 economical overs between them.
Previously, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 piled up 380 runs in their first outing. They started the day on 313/3, but suddenly crumbled against quality spin and seam bowling from Pakistan. The visitors lost their last seven wickets in space of just 67 runs.
Jacques Kallis led his team’s fight-back, scoring a resilient innings of 70 runs. His resilience enabled his team to gather a competent score in the first innings.
Umar Gul caused problems for the opposition batsmen as he scalped three wickets in quick succession. Abdur Rehman added two more to his tally in an incisive display of left-arm spin bowling.
South Africa proceeded into the 2nd session with a score of 363/9. Saeed Ajmal sent in a sharp doosra, which Morne Morkel was unable to put away as it struck him on the pads in-line with stumps and in the process brought about the demise of South
Africa’s first innings.
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