Pakistan trailed South Africa by one run after reaching 103 for two wickets at stumps on Saturday in its second innings on the third day of the first Test.
Opener Imran Farhat hit an undefeated 41 and Younis Khan was not out 32.
South Africa was dismissed for 417 before tea to take a 104-run first innings lead after the visitors were dismissed for 313 in their first innings at Centurion Park.
"We want to restrict Pakistan to a lead of less than 200 runs," South Africa batsman Ashwell Prince said. "If we can do that, I'm sure the guys will be confident of chasing down a target."
Jacques Kallis struck in his first over for South Africa, drawing Mohammad Hafeez into a drive when he had 15. Hafeez edged a simple catch to Graeme Smith at first slip.
Kallis also got Yasir Hameed to give a faint edge to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher for 9. Kallis ended the day with 2-18 off six overs.
Younis and Farhat batted slowly at first but began to play aggressive strokes, frustrating the South Africa bowlers in their unbroken third-wicket partnership of 45.
Earlier, Prince top-scored for South Africa with his sixth Test century. He was stumped for 138 by Kamran Akmal off the leg-spin bowling of Danish Kaneria just before the lunch break.
It was Prince's second-highest Test score, after his 139 not out against Zimbabwe in 2005 at the same ground. He hit 19 fours in his innings, and batted for 349 minutes to lift South Africa from 53-3.
His dismissal also ended a 213-run fifth wicket partnership with Herschelle Gibbs, who was out for 94 -- the sixth time he had got out in the 90s.
"We needed a big partnership and luckily we got it," Gibbs said. "It helped having [Prince] at the other end."
"[Prince is] hitting the ball better and playing better than I have ever seen him play," Gibbs said.
"We would have liked a lead of about 150 or 200. There'll be a lot of work to do tomorrow. The first session will be very important," Gibbs said.
Kaneria finished with 3-97 and Mohammad Asif, in his first match after being allowed to play after a doping ban, had 5-89.
Shaun Pollock shepherded the South Africa tail with his undefeated 39.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS