S.Africa hold upper hand as Pakistan lose three second innings wickets

(deletes extraneous letter in headline, no change to story)

PRETORIA :Pakistan trailed by only two runs as they reached 88-3 in their second innings when bad light brought a premature end to day two of the first test against South Africa at Centurion on Friday, leaving the hosts holding the upper hand.

Marco Jansen took 2-17, with Babar Azam not out on 16 and Saud Shakeel on eight.

Pakistan’s openers Saim Ayub and captain Shan Masood had batted briskly to halve the home side’s sizeable advantage in a determined fight back but three wickets in the last hour swung the advantage back South Africa’s way.

Kagiso Rabada bowled the exciting 22-year-old Ayub for 28, followed by Jansen dismissing Masood for 28 and Kamran Ghulam for four runs.

Earlier, Corbin Bosch continued his dream debut with a swashbuckling unbeaten 81 to help South Africa to 301 in reply to Pakistan’s first innings total of 211.

Bosch came in at number nine to contribute a potential match winning knock and add to his opening day heroics when he took 4-63 and became the 25th cricketer to take a wicket with his first test delivery.

Before his arrival Pakistan had taken five wickets, including opener Aiden Markram for 89, and were firmly in the contest after South Africa resumed on 82-3.

Markram had played a patient role as he headed towards a test century but then inexplicably chased a short-pitched delivery from Khurram Shahzad and gloved the ball to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, leaving his side with only a two-run lead and two wickets in hand.

Pakistan were looking to restrict their hosts to a small lead but tailenders Bosch and Kagiso Rabada had other ideas, putting on 41 runs for the ninth wicket to delight the home crowd before a wild swipe saw Rabada caught for