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January 12, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

South Africa are getting a firm grip of the Centurion Test match thanks to the gritty Ashwell Prince, who has once again stood up to rescue his side from a spot of bother. At the close of play on the second day, South Africa have moved onto 254 for 4 in reply to Pak's first innings total of 313. An unbeaten century stand for the fourth wicket between Prince and Gibbs has got the Proteas under control after a new ball spell from Mohammad Asif had caused jitters early on.

Inzamam-ul-Haq had walked into the ground this morning with Kamran Akmal as Pakistan looked good to post a healthy first innings total. They had begin the day at 242 for 5 and in a matter of 12.5 overs, collapsed to 313 all out. It was once again the hook shot disease that had caused the downfall of the Pakistani which began with Inzamam falling to that shot off an Ntini short delivery. Even the last man to be dismissed in the innings, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan fell playing an uncontrolled hook shot. The overnight batsmen, Inzamam and Kamran Akmal scored 42 and 29 respectively. The other significant contributor was Naved-ul-Hasan who scored a busy 30 from 29 balls with 4 fours and a six. For Makhaya Ntini, it was a 16th five wicket haul, he finished with rich figures of 5 for 83 from 24 overs.

The South Africans had gone to lunch at a shaky 32 for 2 with both Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers forced to nick Mohammad Asif behind the stumps. Asif had bowled something Sreesanth had done for India in their test series against SA. Asif always strives on bowling with an upright seam and getting the ball to move late in both directions. Graeme Smith got such a beauty from over the stumps, one that looked to come back but moved away just the fraction to get the edge. After the lunch break, Pakistan were truly in command of the proceedings of the game with Kallis driving away from his body to edge Asif in the slips. But a solid 90-run partnership between Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince had steadied the ship. Inzamam-ul-Haq had to resort to the likes of Danish Kaneria and the part time spin of Mohammad Hafeez as batting became quite easy after the ball lost its shine and with the sun belting down. It was once again upto Mohammad Asif to provide the breakthrough. He did so by getting Amla to play at a late outswinger which was taken by the wicket keeper. Amla scored 71 which is more of a relief following the string of poor scores he was making at the test level. That wicket was Amla was the only success Pak would get in the remaining part of the day with Prince and Gibbs making sure that SA built the advantage by hanging in there till stumps. Prince is unbeaten on 77 while Herschelle Gibbs had got 58.

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