Rawalpindi [Pakistan], October 20 : It might not have looked that way when Pakistan were cruising at 146/1, but by stumps, South Africa had fought their way back into the contest enough for spinner Keshav Maharaj to term it an even day. The left-arm spinner, who missed the opening Test due to a groin injury, played a crucial role in South Africa's resurgence, as per ESPNcricinfo.

He first removed home favourite Babar Azam early in his innings and later, in the final session, dismissed Pakistan skipper Shan Masood, who mistimed a sweep straight to Marco Jansen at square leg.

Towards the end, Kagiso Rabada struck again to pick up the fifth wicket, forcing Pakistan to bat cautiously in the last half hour of play and finish on 259/5.

"I think it was an even day," Maharaj said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

"We managed to control their run rate. When the ball gets softer - which happens quite quickly because the wicket's quite hard, we managed to just go to old-fashioned Test cricket... I felt if we got one more wicket at night, we'd probably have had a little bit of an upper hand," he added.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan looked set for a strong total as the first two sessions followed a familiar pattern for South Africa as they dropped five catches, much like they had on the opening day of the Lahore Test. At one point, Marco Jansen's delivery kissed the off stump but the bails didn't fall, summing up South Africa's frustration.

"As a collective we know how important catches are, not just in the subcontinent. No one means to drop catches; it was nice to see the guys bounce back and take the catches that they did. Bit frustrating but no one means to drop chances," he noted.

Tony de Zorzi took a sharp catch to dismiss Babar Azam. The Proteas continued to rely heavily on their premier spinner Keshav Maharaj, who bowled 31 overs, more than any other bowler in the series so far. Simon Harmer also sent down 23 overs, while Senuran Muthuswamy, the leading wicket-taker from the first Test in Lahore, bowled only four. Maharaj later explained that using Muthuswamy sparingly was a "tactical" call.

"We saw that the wicket didn't play like Lahore and we felt like we just wanted to try and restrict the Pakistani batters. I don't think there was an issue. Sen (Senuran Muthuswamy) came back nicely with the second spell that he bowled," he said.

By the close of play, Pakistan had scored 54 runs fewer than they did on the first day in Lahore, with South Africa doing well to restrict the scoring rate in the final session. The visitors will be encouraged with the fact that Pakistan have shown a tendency to collapse under pressure, something captain Shan Masood himself had acknowledged after the previous Test.

In Lahore, Pakistan lost their last five wickets for just 16 runs in the first innings, and their last six for 17 across both innings.

"Tomorrow's an important day," Maharaj said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

"Hopefully, we can make inroads tomorrow morning. The main thing is to try bowling as many dot balls as we can. We saw for a period of time when we did do it, that it brought us a little bit of reward, and we created opportunities. I think it's important we start really well tomorrow. Hopefully we can get Saud and Agha early in the morning and open up an end with the lower-order batters. But it's about just trying to bowl our best balls for long periods of time," he noted.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor