Paterson and Bosch give Proteas advantage over Pakistan after first day in Centurion

26 December 2024 - 17:57
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Corbin Bosch celebrates after taking the wicket of Pakistan captain Shan Masood with his first ball in Test cricket on Thursday.
Corbin Bosch celebrates after taking the wicket of Pakistan captain Shan Masood with his first ball in Test cricket on Thursday.
Image: Lee Warren/Gallo Images

Typically for SuperSport Park, the Boxing Day Test unfolded at an unrelenting pace even though one of the chief protagonists driving that acceleration was far from the quickest bowler on display. 

Dane Paterson, however, relishes being the 35 year old who bowls 120km/h, and as far as his last three Tests are concerned, taking wickets.

On a flat track in Chattogram against Bangladesh, he picked up four wickets in the second.

Called into the starting XI for the second Test against Sri Lanka, after Gerald Coetzee was injured, he picked up a maiden five wicket haul, was named player of the match and promptly called out some critics on social media.

He is basking in the glow of a late career revival that was allowed to happen when Cricket SA (CSA) sent a "C team" to New Zealand for two Tests in February. 

That decision supposedly illustrated CSA not taking Test cricket seriously.

As 2024 winds down, the Proteas are, however, on the cusp of qualifying for the World Test Championship final and there can be little doubt how instrumental Paterson, with all 35 years of him and bowling 120km/h, has been in the whole thing. 

He did his job superbly yesterday, and his dismantling of Mohammad Rizwan was one of the standout features on a day that went well for the Proteas.

They finished it on 82/3, trailing Pakistan by 129 runs, with Aiden Markram mixing solid discipline with plenty of characteristically, elegant strokes to finish on 47 not out.

Temba Bavuma will join him at the start of play on Friday, on four. 

Bavuma had to show patience in that first hour after winning the toss, and watching as his two new ball bowlers, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen, went wicketless in the first hour.

As far as Rabada was concerned, it was remarkable that he finished the Pakistan innings wicketless. 

His 14 overs were an outstanding demonstration of fast bowling that had a sold out day which captivated the crowd from the start.

Rabada was as mystified as the enthusiastic audience about how his figures could read 0/35 after Pakistan were bowled out for 211.

His control was superb, and he hunted the off stump of every batter relentlessly.

In the day’s most captivating passage of play he and Kamran Ghulam engaged in some animated banter with the Pakistan batter, who notched up a maiden Test fifty, fraying nerves with his aggressive approach and drawing the crowd’s attention when he responded to SA’s spearhead. 

Rabada celebrated as enthusiastically as would be expected when his teammates reaped the rewards of his endeavour, but such is his competitive nature that it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he was a tad envious. 

Paterson was the chief beneficiary, taking 5/61, though he delivered enough good overs and deliveries to warrant such reward.

Rizwan was beautifully set up, with balls around off stump, before a lovely delivery angled in and left him off the surface. 

The left hand opener Saim Ayub, who was a menace for the Proteas in the white ball matches, received a peach from Paterson that was angled into him from around the wicket and then left him off the surface, with edge nestling into Kyle Verreynne’s gloves. 

That wicket came amid a collapse, which saw Pakistan lose four wickets for 20, and it needed Ghulam and Rizwan’s 81-run fifth wicket stand to garner them a foothold. 

It was the debutant Corbin Bosch, with his mum watching on from a suite in the main stand, who delivered the breakthrough, becoming the fourth South African bowler — and the second this year after Tshepo Moreki — to take a wicket with his first ball in Tests. 

It was an unremarkable wide delivery which Pakistan captain Shan Masood chased, but it gave the South Africans a much needed opening. 

Bosch would finish with 4/63, his bowling not as good as either Rabada or Paterson’s but whose enthusiasm was undeniable. 

Pakistan struck three blows in the final session; Khurram Shazhad knocked back Tony de Zorzi’s middle stump with a beauty that moved into the left-hander, while Ryan Rickelton was caught behind off the same bowler and Tristan Stubbs was trapped lbw by Mohammad Abbas, a delivery which kept low.


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