Ntini bowls hot spell
Readers of an Australian disposition should not venture further than this point. Instead, they should avert their eyes to the Ashes comfort zone or another of the myriad tales of Antipodean über alles .
Anything but this: South Africa will be the official world champions of Test cricket after they have completed the ritual disembowelment of Pakistan in Cape Town.
Sniggering aside, South Africa have looked every inch like champions against Pakistan. The ruthless efficiency that went awol against the Australians last season is back, the most obvious effect of its return being the fact that Pakistan have followed on in both Tests.
South Africa’s rediscovered hardness is most apparent in the approach of their captain, Shaun Pollock, whose targeted aggression earned him four wickets as Pakistan were dismissed still 368 runs behind South Africa at Newlands.
By the close they were 184 adrift with five wickets standing after another day’s play that will be remembered for the visitors’ propensity for tossing their wickets away like unwanted Christmas gifts.
With the exception of Taufeeq Umar, the compact, gritty opener who is a veritable hoarder by comparison. The left-hander, playing with maturity beyond his previous three Test matches, kept the innings afloat until he was undone by Makhaya Ntini and the new ball after lunch. But not before improving his career-best score to 135, his second century, in almost six hours of steady graft.
Ntini laboured without success until he let loose with the new ball, which promptly brought him figures of four for 10.
Taufeeq sent the first delivery of Pakistan’s second innings, bowled by Pollock, angling towards Boeta Dippenaar at third slip. Dippenaar did well to get a hand on it, but the catch didn’t stick.
However, Taufeeq did – for much of the next three hours. Yousuf Youhana’s 27-ball half-century stole Taufeeq’s thunder, but not the respect he earned from the South Africans.