<\/p>\n
Pakistan men\u2019s Test captain Shan Masood said the challenge was to perform consistently after the Green Shirts\u2019win<\/a> against South Africa on Wednesday in the first Test.<\/p>\n Left-arm spinner Noman Ali was South Africa\u2019s chief tormentor as Pakistan won a gripping first Test by 93 runs at Lahore\u2019s Gaddafi Stadium.<\/p>\n Set a daunting 277-run target for victory, the visitors and World Test champions were bowled out for 183 on day four.<\/p>\n Speaking at the post-match press conference, skipper Shan said: \u201cThe message is this \u2014 we are playing good cricket against quality oppostions.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the same time, the challenge is that we need to consistently perform and win matches against top teams.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that talk regarding the first and second divisions of teams in Test cricket would become moot as a result.<\/p>\n Shan also said that mistakes were made, and although there was room to work around them in home conditions, there might not be similar chances in away conditions.<\/p>\n South African left-armer Senuran Muthusamy took 11-174 in the match.<\/p>\n Pakistan made 378 in their first innings, with South Africa scoring 269 in reply.<\/p>\n On a deteriorating surface, the hosts collapsed in their second innings to 167, but it proved enough.<\/p>\n Player-of-the-match Noman finished with 4-79 and 10-191 in the match for his third haul of ten wickets or more in Tests with his left-arm spin.<\/p>\n As Noman continued to play the main character, bamboozling South African batters on an abrasive pitch in the first Test, Shaheen Shah Afridi keenly waited for his turn.<\/p>\n It finally arrived on the fourth day of the contest after Pakistan\u2019s pace spearhead had bowled in the earlier stages of the match, but for no real avail.<\/p>\n However, on the match\u2019s penultimate morning, when the left-armer\u2019s length delivery darted into South African top-order batter Tony de Dorzi\u2019s pads to trap the southpaw lbw, it was evident that Shaheen was keen to take the centre stage.<\/p>\n The lanky pacer went on to take three more wickets to blow away the South African tail and finished with figures of 4-33.<\/p>\n Shan was all praise for the left-arm pacer, saying: \u201cHe showed why he is counted amongst the top bowlers of the world today with his performance.\u201d<\/p>\n The victory gives Pakistan an ideal start to the World Test Championship, having come last in the previous edition.<\/p>\n The second and final Test starts in Rawalpindi from Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe spinners came into play, reverse swing helped the bowlers do their job today, and the batters did well enough, but we still have a lot of challenges in the middle order,\u201d said Shan.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost 11-37 over the course of two innings, which is not good; we must overcome that.\u201d<\/p>\n The defeat broke South Africa\u2019s sequence of ten straight Test wins, culminating in the WTC title in June this year when they beat Australia at Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n Skipper Aiden Markram said the first-innings deficit of 109 was crucial.<\/p>\n \u201cThey (Pakistan) had a really good partnership in the first innings when we had them five wickets down,\u201d he said Markram of a Mohammad Rizwan-Salman Agha stand of 163 runs for the sixth wicket.<\/p>\n \u201cWe probably could have scored a few more runs in the first innings but I am proud of the way we fought.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we need to clean up our game and come back better in the next match.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the toss was not that crucial to the final result.<\/p>\n Brevis took the fight to the Pakistan spinners in the morning and had reached an aggressive career-best 54, with six fours and two sixes, when Noman bowled him with a sharply turning delivery.<\/p>\n Pakistan had struck in the first over of the day through fast bowler Shaheen, who trapped Tony de Zorzi for 16 without any addition to the overnight total of 51-2.<\/p>\n Tristan Stubbs struggled to cope with the sharp turn and was on two when a premeditated reverse sweep off Noman safely landed in Salman Agha\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n Brevis reached his second Test half-century with a six off Noman before becoming the spinner\u2019s fourth victim.<\/p>\n Opener Rickleton\u2019s dogged resistance was broken by Sajid just before lunch for a gritty 45.<\/p>\n Additional input from AFP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pakistan men\u2019s Test captain Shan Masood said the challenge was to perform consistently after the Green Shirts\u2019win against South Africa on Wednesday in the first Test. Left-arm spinner Noman Ali was South Africa\u2019s chief tormentor as Pakistan won a gripping first Test by 93 runs at Lahore\u2019s Gaddafi Stadium. Set a daunting 277-run target for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2025\/10\/15171412bf94a9a.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\u2018First innings deficit was crucial\u2019: South Africa skipper<\/h2>\n
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