Proteas’ 10-match winning streak ended on spinning Lahore pitch

The Proteas failed in their first examination as world Test champions, losing the first of two Tests against Pakistan by 93 runs on Wednesday.

On a deteriorating pitch at the Gaddafi Stadium, the Proteas were rolled for 183 in their second innings, with Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Noman Ali claiming 4/79 to finish with match figures of 10/191

It was mainly a trial by spin in Lahore, with 34 of the 40 wickets falling to slow bowlers, but on the fourth day, Pakistan’s left-arm quick Shaheen Shah Afridi showed his skills with the reverse swinging ball to pick up four wickets.

The decision by the home team to use him at the start of the day seemed to catch Tony de Zorzi off guard. The left-hander, who scored his second Test hundred in the first innings, lasted only three balls and was trapped lbw without adding to his overnight score of 16.

After another horrible dismissal for Tristan Stubbs, whose place for the second Test in Rawalpindi must be up for debate, South Africa briefly had Pakistan on the back foot, thanks to an electrifying half-century by Dewald Brevis.

Using all the attacking skills that have mesmerised viewers when he’s played in the limited-overs formats, Brevis took on Noman in an enthralling battle, hitting straight sixes, one reverse sweep and, in combination with the resolute Ryan Rickelton, running well between the wickets.

The pair shared a partnership of 73 for the fifth wicket, with Brevis making 54 off 54 balls, hitting half a dozen fours and two sixes.

Pakistan were concerned at that point, but Noman’s brilliance, helped by the dry surface, ended Brevis’ charge. Noman deceived the 22-year-old with a quicker delivery that in the air looked like it would carry on straight, but once it pitched — on the line of leg-stump — spun viciously to hit the top of the off-stump.

Rickleton was dismissed by an even better delivery from off-spinner Sajid Khan that pitched outside leg-stump, ripped across the left-handed batter and clipped the edge, with Salman Ali Agha completing a spectacular low catch at slip.

The defeat ended an 11-match unbeaten streak for the Proteas, which included a run of 10 wins on the trot that encompassed the World Test Championship final victory at Lord’s in June.

There will be question marks about the first difficult examination South Africa faced and then failed in the 2027 WTC cycle, in which their schedule is much harder than it was for the 2025 competition.

The toss was an important one for Pakistan, and they made good use of it to notch up 378 in their first innings. When they break down their performance, the Proteas will look back at that first day and know they gave Pakistan too many easy runs, with Kagiso Rabada and the spinners struggling to find the right lines and lengths while the spinners also battled to bowl with the right speeds.

The turnaround in the second innings, when they dismissed Pakistan for 167, showed how quickly they’d heeded the lessons of that first day.

With the exception of Rickelton and De Zorzi in the first innings and Brevis in the second dig, all the Proteas batters struggled against the spinning ball, but the same could be said of the home side’s batters.

Pakistan suffered two collapses in the first innings, but the partnership for the sixth wicket between Mohammad Rizwan and Salman, worth 163 runs, stands out as a crucial turning point.

Though stand-in skipper Aiden Markram said afterwards he was happy with the balance of the starting team, more thought will have to be given to including Marco Jansen in Rawalpindi, and with Keshav Maharaj also joining the squad, one of the spinners — most likely Prenelan Subrayen — may miss out.

Full scorecard here