Tristan Stubbs finds form to provide Proteas with hope despite late Pakistan fightback

Pakistan debutant Asif Afridi struck two late blows to wrest back the initiative from the Proteas on the final afternoon on the second day of the second Test in Rawalpindi. 

The 38-year-old veteran celebrated his first Test wickets with gusto after Tristan Stubbs and Tony de Zorzi compiled a 113-run partnership for the third Proteas wicket.

The pair looked comfortable at the crease with De Zorzi’s intent matching Stubbs’ patience. Both batters had reached their half-centuries and seemed well set to take the game into the third morning before Asif Afridi’s late interventions.

The slow left-arm finger spinner wrapped De Zorzi on the pads, and it seemed plumb in front, but umpire Sharfuddoula remained unmoved. With Pakistan having already burnt two reviews, and with only one still in the bank, captain Shan Masood was hesitant to send it upstairs.

The skipper was eventually persuaded, and rightfully so, as the ball tracking showed that De Zorzi was hit in line with the off stump and that the ball would go on to crash into the stumps. 

De Zorzi departed for 55 off 93 balls (1x4, 2x6) to hand Asif Afridi his maiden Test wicket.

He doubled that soon afterwards with a ripping turner that found Dewald Brevis’ outside edge with the youngster departing for his second duck of the series to leave the Proteas at 171/4.

Stubbs will take plenty of confidence from this innings after many had called him to be dropped after a string of poor scores.

The lack of runs bled through to his fielding where he also dropped a routine slip catch in the first over of Pakistan's first innings on Monday.

But the 25-year-old showed great determination to guts it out against the Pakistan attack, facing 184 balls thus far, which is already the most by any batter across both teams in this series.

The belief certainly started to grow as he flourished the longer he spent at the crease, with a couple of glorious back foot drives along with showing off his trademark power to muscle a six.

A telling point of the Proteas' innings was the fact they kept Lahore match-winner Noman Ali wicketless thus far.

Earlier, Proteas left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj claimed his 12th five-wicket haul to restrict Pakistan to 333 all out.

The left-arm spinner claimed all five Pakistan wickets to fall on the second day to finish with figures of 7/102.

Second Test, Day 2, Stumps

Pakistan: 333 all out (Saud Shakeel 66, Salman Agha 45, Maharaj 7/102)

South Africa: 185/4 (Stubbs 68*, De Zorzi 55, Markram 32, Asif Afridi 2/24, Shaheen 1/43, Sajid Khan 1/55)

South Africa trail by 148 runs