Robbie P craves work

Robin Peterson is looking for work, but he isn't naïve enough to believe he will be busier than usual in the second Test against Pakistan at Newlands starting on Thursday.

In the first Test at the Wanderers, the Proteas left-arm spinner had his nose pressed to the shop window for all of the 29.1 overs the home side needed to dismiss the visitors for 49 in their first innings.

Peterson was not needed to bowl in the fast frenzy, and he sent down just 10 of the 100.4 overs Pakistan lasted in their second innings.

This was as it should have been considering the pitch was packed with help for the seamers, and that Dale Steyn delivered a master class from which he emerged with match figures of 11/60.

Harsh as it is, Peterson is the victim of the success of the best pace attack in the game, and he knows it.

"It can be frustrating but you have to realise you are part of a team, and the team comes first," Peterson said yesterday.

"I am thrilled, too. It might seem like it's sour grapes that I am not bowling but it's magnificent to watch Dale, and getting a front-row seat to watch Vernon [Philander], Morne [Morkel] and JK [Jacques Kallis] perform the way they do.

"I know my time will come so I just have to hang in there and be patient and keep working hard.

"If I don't get the opportunity to bowl and I am surplus to requirements then it's got to be the best attack I've ever played with. It's something special to be part of.

"In SA you need to realise that there is a certain role you've got to perform - whether it's to keep it tight and give the seamers a break if there's no spin, or, if there is a bit on offer, to try make a breakthrough when the seamers can't.

"You'd love to play on turning wickets every weekend, but that's not the case in SA and you've got to adapt."

With the third Test set for the hard, fast pitches of Centurion, this week's match is the best chance Peterson will have to impose himself on a series that is being dominated by the fast men.

But Newlands is also where the Proteas' pace pack dismissed Australia for 47 and New Zealand for 45 in the past 14 months.

"We've played on various surfaces here at Newlands," Peterson said. "It would seem to be that the seamers do a lot of the damage, but, in saying that, it's probably the only surface that we are going to play on against Pakistan where a spinner could come into his own."

Pakistan beat an emerging Cape Cobras XI by 10 wickets in their two-day game in Cape Town yesterday, with beanpole bowler Mohammad Irfan taking 7/40 in the match.

Nasir Jamshed turned an ankle, but team management said he would be fit for the second Test.