South Africa crushed Pakistan by four wickets in the second Test at Newlands, Cape Town on Sunday to clinch an assailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
The victory, with a day to spare, also helped them to tighten their clutches over their world number 1. Test team status.
Witnessing a diminutive collapse which saw them lose six wickets for 22 runs on the either side of lunch, Pakistan were skittled out for 169.
The hosts overhauled the diminutive 112-run target after losing six wickets with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers contributing 58 and 36 runs respectively.
Saeed Ajmal, who had claimed six wickets in the first innings, finished with 4-51 in the second innings to complete his 10-wicket haul in match but his effort wasn’t enough to evade his side from the defeat.
Robin Petersen, who hit his career-best 84 in the first innings to help the hosts manage 326 in reply of Pakistan’s 338, and picked up five wickets in match, was named man-of-the-match.
Vernon Philander was the chief-in-destroyer of Pakistan, who resumed the day on a relatively comfortable, in their second innings.
The pacer, having claimed Nasir Jamshed on the third day, ended the resistance of Azhar Ali (65) before scalping Asad Shafiq (19) and Umar Gul (4) to finish with 4-40. He Philander had match figures of nine for 99.
Dale Steyn finished with 3-38 and Robin Petersen, who triggered Pakistan collapse by snaring skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (44) early in the morning, finished with 3-73.
The third and final Test between the two sides will be played at Centurion from February 22-26. The Test series will be followed by two Twenty20s and five ODIs.
