South Africa finish Day 1 of first Test at 127/5 in response to Pakistan's total of 181

[ILcricket]

Hosts will end up with a handy 50-60 run lead . Can visitors score 225+ & defend it ?

 

[Markhor]

Entertaining first day. Never thought we had as much of a sniff of winning after Pakistan's unsurprisingly dismal batting performance with the special exception for Babar whose innings will live long in the memory.

5 wickets in the bag means we've a good chance of limiting SA's first innings below 230 and maybe hopefully setting them a tricky 4th innings chase. De Kock is still to come though and can play dangerous counterattacking knocks.

Lots of work to be done but the fightback in the second half of the day is encouraging.

 

[troodon]

SA still has some batting.

QDK may be out of form. But he commands respect.

Rabada can also bat. He is good for 20 runs.

I beleive SA will end up around 225. Pak should look to get rid of Bavuma quickly in the morning.

 

[Ami]

Amir doing what he was born to do..
the go-to man...I know he hasnt always lived upto that tag.
Afridi...promising.
Hasan...too many run leaks for me, he needs to be tight.

 

[Savak]

Pakistan will have to bat really well in the 2nd innings to make a match out of this. Can they?

 

[last_knight]

Irony is that with Philander playing, Pak might had scored 50 more.

 

[ManFan]

This has been a great display between two poor batting line-ups.

A wonderful day of Test cricket.

 

[BaankeJi]

Pakistan will have to bat really well in the 2nd innings to make a match out of this. Can they?

How much is the limit of South Africa chase in 4th innings?
I think 200 is enough.

 

[Bilal7]

Entertaining first day. Never thought we had as much of a sniff of winning after Pakistan's unsurprisingly dismal batting performance with the special exception for Babar whose innings will live long in the memory.

5 wickets in the bag means we've a good chance of limiting SA's first innings below 230 and maybe hopefully setting them a tricky 4th innings chase. De Kock is still to come though and can play dangerous counterattacking knocks.

Lots of work to be done but the fightback in the second half of the day is encouraging.

It was very plain to see that this is a tough pitch. All that criticism and wrist-slitting is once again looking silly.

 

[Suleiman]

If anything this match has showed how negative Pakistani fans are at the start of a game.

Same rhona dhona every game. Just enjoy plays. Had a lot of fun, everyone who I wanted to do well did well, Shan was a tad unlucky, but the difference between 2013 pace attack and this current one is night and day. Pace attack will be even better same time next year. Just watch

 

[KingKhanWC]

Pakistan will have to bat really well in the 2nd innings to make a match out of this. Can they?

If Pakistan can limit any lead less than 40-50 , I have a feeling if they score 200 a lead of 150 might be enough if this pitch continues to get lower and lower.

Pak fans should not take an eye off this match!

 

[Ab Fan]

QdK has been out of form recently. Pak needs to take advantage of that.

He is a hit-miss these days, he will bat like that tomorrow.

I think Pakistan should look to get him out cheaply because he will try to score quick 40-50 at 90-100 SR and put SA on a more satisfying position. That shouldn't be allowed.

 

[hadi123]

A good day of cricket overall. Hopefully it will be a similar story to the 3rd Test match between South Africa and India earlier this year. Let's hope we can limit SA's lead to 50 or less, I reckon 200+ will be hard to chase for the hosts.

 

[Abdullah]

Pakistan will have to bat really well in the 2nd innings to make a match out of this. Can they?

Why . We just need a double strike in the first 7 overs and we can keep them to 180. Then it is an innings shootout and they are batting last

 

[PakPremi]

Azhar, Shan battled well, the later was unlucky and former got a good ball. Babar looked in supreme form. Asad às usual proved again to be unreliable, and God knows why Sarfraz has lost confidence in his batting, perhaps he is paying too much attention to D&G posters trying to bring him down. He already continued with good batting and captaincy, and looks to lost a lot of weight.

 

[Aman]

Seriously impressive fightback from Babar and the bowlers.

 

[gazza619]

Seems like [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] was right. Dont need Yasir Shah on SA tracks. Faheem could have contributed vital 20 odd with the bat and chipped in with some wickets.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Pakistan need to be really disciplined against SA's tail. They are no mugs with the bat.

 

[PakLFC]

Again a poor batting performance has given RSA the initiative here. Luckily our bowling has performed yet again keeping us well in the match. We need to dismiss them cheaply then get a lead of at least 250 to give us a chance of bowling them out again. It's 50/50 at the moment.

 

[Oligochaetes]

Pakistan is capable of losing from any winnable position. Still have to bat in 3rd innings, whatever the lead and only Azhar and Babar give us some confidence.

I am also wary of wagging tails, it's happened quite often in international games against subcontinental teams.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Need to be disciplined with ball and (hopefully) bat today. First session could define the test match.

 

[Asif321]

If we get those 5 wickets in 50 runs will be great

 

[ARK Rafay]

Early wickets will be key today. If we get Bavuma and QDK out early then we can get the last 3 wickets around that trail runs. Otherwise I'm looking at 80+ lead from SAF.