The fourth day of the first South Africa-Pakistan match begins today in Centurion with a glimpse of a thrilling ending.
Those who went to watch the game at SuperSport Park today were not disappointed. Those who watched the game on television were not disappointed either. What a thrilling battle the two teams presented!
South Africa had the last laugh after that tense match. Batting for a target of 148 runs, the Proteas lost 8 wickets for 99 runs. After three years, pacer Mohammad Abbas, who was included in the Pakistan Test team, started giving Pakistan dreams of a great victory by taking 6 wickets. But Kagiso Rabada, along with Marco Janssen, took away that dream from the Pakistanis.
South Africa celebrated their 'world title' when the third ball of Abbas' 40th over was bowled out of bounds by Marco Jansen at point. The team came a step closer to winning the match they had almost lost. With this two-wicket win, South Africa became the first team to qualify for the final of the third round of the World Test Championship.
When Jansen took the last four wickets to win the match, he was unbeaten on 16 runs. Rabada's partnership of 50 runs for the ninth wicket was 31 runs off 26 balls.
South Africa started the day at 27 for 3. The team's mainstay was Aiden Markram. He had scored 22 of South Africa's 27 runs the previous day. That same Markram, along with captain Temba Bavuma, safely made it through the first hour of the day. The Proteas went into the drinks break at 62 for 3.
After the break, everything changed as soon as the game started. In the first over, Mohammad Abbas bowled Markram (37 runs off 63 balls) with a perfect length ball that went a little low. Bavuma remained steadfast even after Markram departed. The captain added 34 runs for the fifth wicket with David Bedingham.
What happened to Bavuma then? The Proteas captain wanted to drive a relatively harmless ball by Abbas across the middle of the wicket and out of bounds. But the ball flew off Bavuma's bat and into Mohammad Rizwan's gloves. The umpire gave him out after hearing a slight noise. Bavuma complied and returned to the dressing room. Back there, Bavuma must have heard the scolding of his teammates, who were sure that the Ultra Edge technology in the TV replay could not prove the connection between the ball and the bat. At the time of this incident, South Africa's score was 96/5 in 29.4 overs.
South Africa went from 99/5 to 99/8 in four balls. And Abbas returned to Tests after three years and bowled his career-best. He took six wickets for the first time in his 26-Test career, surpassing the record he set against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2018 (5/33).
It seemed that South Africa was repeating the history of repeatedly collapsing under pressure on the world stage of cricket. But Rabada and Jansen wanted to walk in the opposite direction of history. Rabada started the work of removing all the pressure by hitting a four off the fourth ball of Abbas's over. South Africa went to lunch with the team's score at 116 runs without losing any more wickets.
Then, Rabada and Jansen returned to the field and took the spoils from Pakistan within 6 overs to secure an incredible victory.
The final Test of the series will begin in Cape Town on January 3.
English 
বাংলা