Rickelton, Verreynne bat Proteas into commanding position at Newlands

Thanks to a thrilling double century from Ryan Rickelton and several other good batting contributions, the Proteas ended day two of the second Test against Pakistan at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday very much in the driving seat.

At the close of play, Pakistan were 64/3 after 21 overs faced in reply to the South Africans’ first innings score of 615 all out.

South Africa won the first Test between the teams in Centurion last Sunday to take a 1-0 lead into this, the final match of the series.

Looking to bat Pakistan into some sort of position to challenge South Africa on day three, Sunday, will be Babar Azam (31) and Mohammad Rizwan (9).

Rollicking Rickelton

The second Test has so far belonged solely to the South Africans, and in particular Rickelton, who scored 259, the joint seventh highest Test score recorded by a South African.

Resuming his innings after the first day’s play on 176 on Saturday, the 28-year-old went on to score his double hundred before lunch and then was dismissed in the afternoon session after spending 131.4 overs batting. He struck 29 fours and three sixes from 343 balls faced.

It was Rickelton’s second score of 100 runs or more, in his 10th Test, after he scored his maiden Test ton against Sri Lanka in Gqeberha in early December.

The opening batter’s score was also the second highest Test score recorded at Newlands, after New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming, who made 262 in 2006.

Rickelton also shared important partnerships in the innings with Aiden Markram (61), Temba Bavuma (235), Kyle Verreynne (148) and Marco Jansen (86). 

Verrynne also gets his century

Besides the 259 scored by the Lions man, Verreynne (100) went to a thrilling century of his own on Saturday, from 147 balls and including nine fours and five sixes), following Bavuma’s 106 on Friday. Jansen struck a quick-fire 62 and Keshav Maharaj 40.

Pakistan, who are without key opener Saim Ayub, who broke his ankle while fielding early on Friday, started their batting innings poorly when captain Shan Masood was dismissed for two, and he was followed back to the dressing room by Kamran Ghulam (12) and Saud Shakeel (0); Kagiso Rabada (2/9) and Jansen (1/14) getting the wickets.