South Africa vs PAK 2024/25, South Africa vs PAK 2nd Test Match Preview

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Ironically, the attempt to give context to this Test series has taken some things away from this Test match, especially as far as South Africa is concerned. The hosts have already qualified for the World Test Championship final after defeating Pakistan by two wickets in Centurion and so do not necessarily have a bigger picture to play for. However, they have won eight consecutive Test matches against Pakistan at home, and have never won a home series against these opponents, and in that bilateral context, there is a lot to play for.

Since South Africa qualified, some attention has been paid to the perceived soft nature of their draw en route to the World Test Championship, for which their coach Shukri Conrad made “no apologies”. But with no Test cricket between this Test and the WTC final, South Africa will be looking to reach the final in style, and extend the winning streak that already stretches to six matches.

Pakistan’s WTC hopes were dashed long ago, but they need to get out of the habit of letting winning conditions slip away, which has been a habit in this particular cycle. As a result, they have now lost seven of the last nine Tests, and all of the last eight in South Africa. Centurion came the closest to breaking that hoodoo, at one point being two wickets away from a spectacular victory while South Africa were still 49 runs away from victory. But, as has often been the case with Pakistan, they struggled to get the ball to the end and saw another ball slip through their fingers.

Newlands arguably plays a little more to his strengths, as South Africa do not have that pace. This is a surface on which both captains expect to pick up a little more spin than Centurion, and should return to its natural characteristics after a eccentric test Last year against India which was over in one and a half days. Both sides are expected to field a spinner, while Pakistan’s seam and swing bowlers may get more pleasure, especially in the early stages of the Test before the surface becomes flat. With only two Test wins during three decades of play in South Africa, a win here – and a drawn series – would go down as their most impressive overseas Test series result in years.

Form guide (last five completed matches, most recent first)

South Africa:WWWWW

Pakistan:LWWLL

in the headlines

Spin is likely to play a more important role at Newlands than Centurion, Keshav Maharaj Goes back. But the left-arm orthodox spinner, considered the perfect venue for slow bowling at Newlands, has had a surprisingly indifferent record in Cape Town, taking only 9 wickets at an average of over 52 in 6 matches. This is almost double their average of 30.44 in the South. Africa in general, and Maharaj is returning from the adductor strain that has ruled him out of the ODI series. Whether he will be able to start overturning his Newlands record as the Tests progress could be an interesting storyline.

This is not an old era for opening batsmen in Test cricket, especially not for Pakistani openers. By the final Test, they had not made a partnership of more than 15 all year, but showed faint glimpses of that changing with the new pairing Saim Ayyub And Shan MasoodScored 36 and 49 runs. But neither opener managed to survive in both the innings, which Masood brought up as a point of frustration in Centurion. It is not at all easy to score runs for the first wicket against the kind of world-class new ball bowling attack that South Africa has at home, but Pakistan desperately needs them.

team news

South Africa have made changes after the first Test, with Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder and debutant fast bowler Kwena Mafaka coming into the squad. Opening batsman Tony De Zorzi has a thigh strain, while fast bowling all-rounders Corbin Bosch and Dane Paterson have also been benched.

South Africa: Ryan Rickleton 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Wiaan Mulder (c), 4 Tristan Stubbs 5 Temba Bavuma (c) 6 David Bedingham, 7 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 8 Marco Johnson, 9 Keshav Maharaj 10 Kagiso Rabada 11 Kwena Mafaka

Pakistan are yet to announce their playing XI, unsure whether to play Noman Ali or work with Salman Ali Aga as the main spinner.

Pakistan: 1 Shan Masood (captain) 2 Sam Ayub 3 Babar Azam 4 Kamran Ghulam 5 Saud Shakeel 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper) 7 Salman Ali Aga 8 Aamer Jamal/Noman Ali 9 Naseem Shah 10 Mohammad Abbas 11 Khurram Shahzad

pitch and conditions

“I don’t think I’m allowed to speak about the wicket,” Temba Bavuma joked during the press conference after the ultra-short Test here last year. Although there is less grass on it compared to the Centurion, it started to spin after the test.

Statistics and General Knowledge

Keshav Maharaj is seven wickets away from becoming the first South African spinner to take 200 Test wickets.

None of the current batsmen of the Pakistan team have a really great record in South Africa. Babar Azam’s 275 runs at 34.37 makes him the most brilliant batsman, while no active Pakistani in this country has a century.

Citation

“The series is still on the line. So, even though we have ticked that box of reaching the final, we would still like to be clinical in the series. We have our sights set on two nil. Our focus, our motivation is still there. I think as a team, as much as we won last week, we acknowledge that we weren’t at our best in batting and bowling, so we’ll look to improve in those areas compared to last week. “See me getting a lot better.”
south african captain Temba Bavuma He feels there is still a lot of improvement to be done from his side

Daniel Rasool is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent. @danny61000

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