South Africa booked their place in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final after beating Pakistan in the first of two-match Test series. The Proteas chased down the seemingly modest 148-run target in thrilling fashion, winning by two wickets on the fourth day.
With the win, South Africa solidified their place at the top of the WTC standings, remaining top with 66.67 percentage points accumulated after seven wins from 11 matches played. One of Australia or India will be their opponents in the third WTC final.
India have played the first two finals but their quest to play a third consecutive title match looks stiff after being blanked 0-3 by New Zealand at home and then losing the day-night Test against Australia at Adelaide Oval.
LATEST WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
| No. | Teams | M | W | L | T | D | N/R | PT | PCT |
| 1 | South Africa | 11 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 88 | 66.67 |
| 2 | Australia | 15 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 106 | 58.89 |
| 3 | India | 17 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 114 | 55.88 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 48.21 |
| 5 | Sri Lanka | 11 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 45.45 |
| 6 | England | 22 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 114 | 43.18 |
| 7 | Bangladesh | 12 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 31.25 |
| 8 | Pakistan | 11 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 30.30 |
| 9 | West Indies | 11 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 32 | 24.24 |
At Centurion, South Africa started from overnight’s precarious 27/3, Aiden Markram became the first to fall after adding 15 runs to his score. Skipper Temba Bavuma struck 40 runs before falling to Mohammad Abbas with a nothing shot that once again rekindled Pakistan’s hopes.
But those hopes were dashed by Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada who produced a stellar effort at the bottom of the pyramid.
Jansen struck the winning runs, remaining unbeaten on 16 and Rabada standing tall on 31 not out.
On Saturday, Jansen’s six-wicket haul had helped South Africa to chase down a small, yet tricky, 148-run target. Going into stumps, South Africa wobbled to 27/3 with the Pakistan seamers creating possibility of shock result.
Mohammad Abbas, back to the longest format after more than three years, trapped Tony de Zorzi (2) and Tristan Stubbs (1) lbw in the final session.
In between, Khurram Shahzad convinced skipper Shan Masood to go for a successful review against Ryan Rickelton, who fell for a five-ball duck.
During the Pakistan innings, Saud Shakeel (84) and Babar Azam (50) struck half centuries, but Jansen’s three-wicket burst in four overs dented Pakistan’s progress as the visitors lost seven wickets for 84 runs after resuming on 88-3.
Shakeel and Babar dominated the pace trio of Kagiso Rabada (2-68), Corbin Bosch (1-54) and Dane Paterson (1-55) with aggressive batting in a 79-run stand.
Babar looked in good touch but, soon after completing a first test half-century in 20 innings, he sliced Jansen’s short ball straight to Bosch at deep backward point.
Mohammad Rizwan (3) and Salman Ali Agha (1) also fell to reckless shots. The former gloved a wayward leg-side delivery from Jansen to the wicketkeeper and Salman was caught behind after playing an expansive drive to the third ball he faced.
Shakeel showed plenty of composure as Pakistan stretched its lead to 136 before he missed a full toss from Jansen and was lbw.
Pakistan were finally bowled out in the last session when debutant Bosch claimed his fifth wicket of the match.
