The whole drama started when Mulder made an unnecessary throw in his follow-through.
Babar Azam and Wiaan Mulder were involved in a heated moment on the fourth delivery of the 32nd over during the third day of the second Test between South Africa and Pakistan. The whole drama started when Mulder made an unnecessary throw in his follow-through.
Mulder bowled a length delivery outside the off-stump line, to which Babar got forward and drove back to the bowler. The bowler collected it instantly, threw it immediately at Babar, and the two exchanged a few words.
Babar was gesturing Mulder to have a shy at the stumps rather than targeting him, and the bowler said, “You were out of your crease”. The umpires had to intervene and calm things down between players, and Aiden Markram and Shan Masood also had a chat with the batter.
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Usually, Babar is a calm character who doesn’t get involved too much in sledging or on-field banters but was probably frustrated by the deliberate targeting of his body by Mulder. The bowler had the stump to hit if he felt Babar was out of his crease, and his act was wrong all the way.
After conceding 615 in the first innings, Pakistan couldn’t bat well in the second innings and were bundled on a mere 194. There were a couple of decent knocks from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, but no one could convert them into big scores.
Hence, South Africa enforced the follow-on and asked Pakistan to bat again, and the visiting team responded strongly. Shan Masood (102*) and Babar Azam (81) formed a massive 205-run stand for the opening wicket before the latter departed.
It was the highest opening partnership ever while following on in Test cricket and the highest for Pakistan for any wicket while following on. This 205-run stand was also the second-highest partnership for any wicket in a Test match for Pakistan and South Africa.
However, that was the only casualty for Pakistan in the second innings on Day 3 as the Nightwatchman Khurram Shahzad saw the day out for the team. It was a nice counterpunch from Pakistan, who looked to be going down soon.
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