SA vs Pak 2024-25 – Pakistan misses the opportunity to score with so much available

So 211 is hardly a shame; in fact, it may even be acceptable. But offering Bosch and Paterson nine wickets may make less sense. Even though Pakistan have not surpassed 200 in their first innings in South Africa since 2013, being happy with this result is a bit like going to a buffet and walking out after a cappuccino. It may have met the immediate need, but there was much more available. The invitation to this buffet was somehow secured; The hard part was done.

There was nothing wrong with embarking on this expansive action, but the implementation went horribly wrong. By then the batters had been struck out 11 times, survived an LBW cry on the umpire’s order and put a few in unlikely gaps. An hour after enduring some of the most demanding fast bowling on one of the tougher pitches, Pakistan owed their breakthrough to a nervous debutant who half-chased the first ball.

Pakistan continued to struggle through the buffet table. Babar Azam received a short and a wide stroke from Paterson and held out his bat as carelessly as if he might as well have been holding out a stray steak knife in a crowded room. It had similarly deadly consequences; he would be released from the room before he had begun to earn his worth.

The day always followed the same pattern. Rabada threatened without finding the end product, but in truth there was little else to fear from the rest of the attack. Jansen was largely ineffective and even Pakistan, in that profligate mood, did not allow him any goals. ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data showed the batters were in control of 78% of his deliveries, the highest performance against any bowler from either side on the day.

However, it is a mystery how Bosch could not remain equally unrewarded. Pakistan’s control rate against him wasn’t much better at 74%, and he sent 38 balls – almost half of his entire innings – well outside stump or down-leg bowling. But he must have been exceptionally kind this year because Pakistan filled their Christmas stocking to the brim.

Saud Shakeel seemed to have decided on a whim that he no longer wanted to be known as the team’s most conservative batsman and ran out of the blocks with 14 runs in his first five balls; It’s his fastest start in any format. However, when Bosch delivered a ball that really deserved to be put away, Shakeel passed it to the wicketkeeper with his gloves on and his brief Boxing Day affair of belligerence was over before it had even blossomed.

Aamer Jamal had more success with this strategy; It is a sign of South Africa’s indifference to the ball for long stretches that he and Salman Agha again struggled to put Pakistan in another respectable position, closing in on 200 for 6 by tea. Ultimately, however, Jamal found a similarly unseemly way to defer to the debutant, using a horizontal racket to approach a ball that was too close to cut and chopping it on. Pakistan could not help but pile up its layoffs in a heap to undo all the good work that had preceded them, as if regurgitating the contents of a recently eaten nutritious meal. They lost three wickets as there were no runs in eight balls and the innings was effectively over.

Despite being back to his positive self, Ghulam described the atmosphere in the dressing room after the day as “excellent” and admitted there were regrets. “Rizzy (Mohammad Rizwan) and I played very well. We had it under control and it was in our hands and I shouldn’t have played the shot I made.”

It doesn’t seem to be the result of the day that disappoints Pakistan, but rather the waste. For 211 in Centurion, cloudy skies mean they may have left with a full stomach, but the food supply wasn’t really taken advantage of.