The right-handed opener got to his sixth fifty in Test cricket.
How much luck is too much luck? The best player to ask would be Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique. The right-handed opener scored a gritty 57 in the first innings of the second Test in Rawalpindi. However, that innings had everything in it. Missed chances, dropped catches and the ball hitting the stumps but the bails not coming off.
Shafique faced a 146 deliveries in the innings, and survived on almost half of a dozen occasions en route to his 57. His innings had just four boundaries and came at a strike-rate of less than 40, which was one of the lowest in the innings for the hosts. There were regular attempts to go the aggressive way, and the South Africans did not let him off the hook. But they missed chances to keep him out in the middle!
Keshav Maharaj & Co. learnt quite a few things from their first outing, which they lost. They bowled tighter lines this time around, and this was the reason why the Pakistani batters were unable to get away freely. Maharaj and Simon Harmer garnered the first four wickets of the innings, which suggested that there was some turn on offer on Day 1.
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If recorded in cricket history, Abdullah Shafique’s innings would easily go down as one of the most eventful outings in the history of Test cricket. The right-handed opening batter survived close calls right from the first over of Kagiso Rabada, when Tristan Stubbs dropped a catch in the slip cordon. The smile on the face of Shafique which originated in the first over, lasted till the 51st over.
In the sixth over of the innings, a delivery from Marco Jansen nicked the stumps but the bails did not come off. The delivery kissed the inside edge of the bat of Shafique and also went on to nick the stumps. But the impact wasn’t hard enough to dislodge the bails. Surviving twice in the first six overs is the kind of start any batter would grab with both hands.
Just as the Proteas thought it was over, an incident in the 10th over showed them otherwise. Shafique stepped down and tried flicking a delivery from Keshav Maharaj against the turn. The ball took the leading edge, and went just a couple of yards away from the left-arm spinner. Maharaj dived, and even got the ball into his hands, but couldn’t hold on to the chance. Third chance gone down!
That was all for the first session. The Proteas would have walked back for lunch hoping that Maharaj stuck to the ball in his hands. Little did they know, more was yet to come. In the 38th over, Abdullah Shafique edged a ball from Maharaj which wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne could only deflect. Aiden Markram, who was in the slips could also not hold on to the chance.
The last instance occurred in the 46th over. The Abdullah Shafique used his feet against Maharaj, but he couldn’t get to the pitch of the delivery, which turned away. However, Verreynne missed the trajectory of the ball and could not inflict any damage behind the wickets. Finally, the right-handed batter’s onslaught ended in the 51st over when Simon Harmer got him dismissed for 57.
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