Mohammad Hafeez claimed his career best figures of 4-16
Mohammad Hafeez claimed his career-best four-wicket haul as Pakistan bundled out South Africa for merely 253 on the opening day of the first Test in Johannesburg on Friday.
Surviving two overs at the end of the day, Pakistan finished on six for no wicket.
Chief-in-destroyer Mohammad Hafeez finished with 4-16 and pace duo Junaid Khan and Umar Gul claimed two wickets apiece as the hosts were bowled out in the 86th over shortly before close.
Barring Jacques Kallis (50), who became the fourth batsman to complete 13,000 runs in Tests after Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and Rahul Dravid, the rest of others failed to make impact.
After electing to bat skipper Graeme Smith (24), who become the first ever player in history to achieve 100 captaincies, and Alviro Petersen (20) cautiously drove up Proteas to 46 in the 19th over before both fell in successive overs.
Petersen was the first man to go as he spooned catch to Mohammad Hafeez off Junaid at third slip before Smith was caught behind the stumps in attempt to hit the ball on leg-side.
Kallis and Hashim Amla started rebuilding the innings and shared 79 runs for the third wicket before Kallis, who hit nine boundaries in his 78-ball knock, mistimed a pull off Gul to hand a catch to Asad Shafiq at deep midwicket.
The Proteas had not yet recovered from the blow yet when South Africa’s most prolific batsman of the last year, fall pray off part-timer Younis Khan after scoring just 27 runs.
Wicketkeeper batsman AB de Villiers (31) and Faf du Plessis (41) combined to launch another of recovery and guided the total to 199-4 before the former fell to Mohammad Hafeez, pooping a catch to Shahzad at deep.
Batting sagaciously, Dean Elgar (27) and watchful du Plessis took the total to 232-5 but letter’s dismissal to Junaid sparked a wider collapse in South African batting line as they lost the next five wickets for just 21 runs.
