Rawalpindi: Thirty-eight-year-old Pakistani spinner Asif Afridi became the oldest bowler to claim a five-wicket haul on Test debut Wednesday, before South Africa’s lower-order batters staged a resilient fightback to frustrate the hosts in the second Test.
The 38-year-old Afridi snared 5-61, but Senuran Muthusamy and Keshav Maharaj both got reprieves to lift South Africa to 285-8 at lunch on Day 3.
South Africa was trailing by 98 runs when it lost Marco Jansen, then Muthusamy and Maharaj combined to cut the first-innings deficit to 48 with an aggressive, unbeaten half-century stand.
Muthusamy was unbeaten on 48 off 84 balls and escaped a chance when Salman Ali Agha couldn’t hold onto a top-edge while running from the slips.
Maharaj also survived a couple of dropped catches and a stumping opportunity as he reached 23 off 32 balls.
Afridi, who finally earned a test debut after performing impressively in the last couple of domestic seasons, ran through the middle-order after South Africa resumed on 185-4.
Record haulAfridi became only the sixth Pakistani spinner after Mohammad Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Bilal Asif, Noman Ali and Abrar Ahmed to grab a five-wicket haul in a debut test.
In doing so, he beat the test record set by England legspinner Charles Marriott, who returned 5-37 on debut against West Indies in 1933 at the age of 37.
Afridi’s sliders baffled the South Africa batters as he struck of the fourth ball of Day 3, finding the outside edge of Kyle Verreynne’s (10) bat.
Tristan Stubbs (76) added eight to his overnight 68 before he was undone by another straight delivery as he tried to flick the left-arm spinner off the back foot and was out leg before wicket.
Afridi then celebrated his memorable five-wicket haul when Simon Harmer (2) went for a sweep but was struck on the back leg directly in front of the stumps.
Pakistan took the second new ball and Noman Ali finally got his first wicket when he had Jansen lbw. Muthusamy and Maharaj both batted aggressively and brought the World Test Championship winners closer to Pakistan’s first innings of 333.
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