{"id":9458,"date":"2025-01-02T13:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T08:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=9458"},"modified":"2025-01-02T13:14:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T08:14:28","slug":"pakistans-morale-high-despite-heartbreak-in-centurion-test-says-salman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/sports\/pakistans-morale-high-despite-heartbreak-in-centurion-test-says-salman\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan\u2019s morale high despite heartbreak in Centurion Test, says Salman"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE TOWN: Ending up on the losing side<\/a> in the first Test despite pushing South Africa to the brink of defeat in Centurion is regretted by the Pakistan dressing room but the team\u2019s morale remains high, all-rounder Salman Ali Agha has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan had reduced the Proteas, who were chasing 148, to 99-8 on a tough Cen\u00adturion Park wicket, only for all-rounder Marco Jansen and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada to carry the hosts to victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The win saw South Africa seal their place in the World Test Championship final, set to be held at Lord\u2019s this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Pakistan, who have lost seven of their nine matches of the ongoing WTC cycle, fighting it out to take the first match down to the wire was an encouraging sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shan Masood-led side, however, is looking for nothing less than a win in the second Test here at Newlands \u2014 starting Friday \u2014 also drawing their confidence from the 3-0 whitewash of the hosts in the preceding One-day International series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a great game; it could go anywhere,\u201d Salman said of the opening fixture during a media talk on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Rabada and Jansen played very well. There were a few moments in the game, where we could have put them away but we couldn\u2019t capitalise on that. But we have learnt from our mistakes and we\u2019ll look to do better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very confident about beating them in the next game and our morale is very high since we also won the ODI series. I hope the second Test turns out to be a cracker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centurion, which proved to be a paradise for seamers due to the amount of grass on the playing surface, was a different ball game as compared to what Newlands is expected to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous Test played at Newlands against India 12 months ago lasted only 107 overs as the visitors won by seven wickets inside two days, the shortest Test that has had a winner in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wicket should be better this time round, but at a ground that used to be a fortress for the home team, they have lost two of their last three Tests in Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per Salman\u2019s observation, the pitch at the venue will definitely wouldn\u2019t be as green and spinners, unlike what happened in Centurion, would play a key role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looks like a different pitch from Centurion; there\u2019s less grass here,\u201d said the off-spinner. \u201cBut we\u2019ll have a better idea by tomorrow and then we can tell how we\u2019d go about the Test match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at the stats, the spinners do come handy here. But we haven\u2019t decided anything so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I saw the wicket I felt I\u2019ll probably bowl in this game, because I haven\u2019t bowled in the last three Test matches. I think my role will be key in this Test match.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salman was full of praise for Pakistan pacer Mohammad Abbas, who, returning to Test colours after three years, bowled a marathon spell in the first Test to drag Pakistan back into the game by breaking a solid partnership between South African captain Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram before going on to register figures of 6-54.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is very accurate, he knows what he is doing, he knows about his bowling,\u201d said Salman. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen any other bowler who knows his skill as much as he does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a bit rusty in the first innings with the new ball but you can expect that from a guy coming into the team after three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way he came back in the second innings was outstanding. I think he was the one who put us back in the game. The way Markram and Bavuma were going, I thought it would be a one-sided game but how he came back and bowled a whole session was just outstanding.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAPE TOWN: Ending up on the losing side in the first Test despite pushing South Africa to the brink of defeat in Centurion is regretted by the Pakistan dressing room but the team\u2019s morale remains high, all-rounder Salman Ali Agha has said. Pakistan had reduced the Proteas, who were chasing 148, to 99-8 on a tough Cen\u00adturion […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}