Ashwell Prince and Jacques Kallis hit fighting half-centuries for South Africa yesterday against a disciplined Pakistan bowling attack on the first day of the second Test.
South Africa finished on 259-6 with wicketkeeper Mark Boucher not out on 9 and Andre Nel yet to score as stumps were drawn seven overs before scheduled close due to bad light.
Prince (63) shared the day's best stand of 83 with De Villiers (45)before both were dismissed in the last half an hour.
Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman broke through Prince's defenses when the South African vice captain attempted a big drive and was bowled.
De Villiers was unlucky to be run out after a drive by Boucher touched Mohammad Asif's fingers as the bowler followed through and deflected back onto the stumps at the non-striker's end.
Danish Kaneria (2-73) bowled a marathon spell of 27 overs on a lively wicket at the Gaddafi Stadium.
LANKY
The lanky leg-spinner came onto bowl in only the 12th over of the day and was duly rewarded with the key wickets of Kallis and captain Graeme Smith (46), who elected to bat after winning the toss.
Kaneria struck in the middle session when he bamboozled Smith with a delivery that turned sharply and hit the stumps through a little gap between bat and pad.
Kallis put on 53 runs with Smith and shared another productive 60-run stand with Prince. Kaneria struck again in the last over before tea when he had Kallis trapped plumb lbw.
Kallis, who scored 155 and an unbeaten 100 in South Africa's first Test victory last week, looked somewhat shaky on a wicket that has bounce for fast bowlers and also offered appreciable turn to Kaneria.
He was beaten at times by Kaneria's sharp leg-spinners and on 34 survived a close lbw decision off Asif.
He completed his half century off 104 balls with two cover driven boundaries off paceman Umar Gul.
SLOW START
South Africa, leading 1-0 in the two-Test series, made a slow start progressing to 70-2 in the morning session.
Asif and new-ball partner Gul bowled at a good pace before Pakistan got the breakthrough in the eighth over when opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs (13) drove loosely at a Gul delivery and gave an easy catch to Misbah-ul-Haq.
Hashim Amla (10) misjudged an Asif delivery that cut back into the right-hander and hit the top of off-stump.
South Africa -- looking for their first away series win against a major subcontinent opponent in the last seven years -- retained the same team that defeated Pakistan in the first Test.
Pakistan brought in vastly experienced batsmen Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf after both opted out of the first Test.
Inzamam, playing his last match before retiring from Test cricket, replaced Faisal Iqbal in the middle-order.
Mohammad Yousuf came in for opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez.
Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal is expected to open the innings in place of Hafeez.
RSS