Pakistan men’s Test captain Shan Masood said the challenge was to perform consistently after the Green Shirts’ victory against South Africa on Wednesday in the first Test.
Left-arm spinner Noman Ali was South Africa’s main tormentor as Pakistan won a thrilling first Test by 93 runs at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
With a daunting target of 277 runs for victory, the visitors and World Test champions were bowled out for 183 on the fourth day.
In the post-match press conference, captain Shan said: “The message is this: we are playing good cricket against quality opposition.
“But at the same time, the challenge is that we need to perform consistently and win games against the best teams.”
He added that as a result, talk about first and second division teams in Test cricket would become moot.
Shan also said mistakes were made and while there was room to fix them at home, there might not be similar opportunities away from home.
South African left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy won 11-174 in the match.
Pakistan scored 378 in their first innings, and South Africa scored 269 in reply.
On a deteriorating surface, the hosts collapsed in their second innings at 167, but it proved enough.
Player of the match Noman finished with 4-79 and 10-191 in the match for his third left-arm haul of ten or more wickets in Tests.
While Noman continued to play the lead role, fooling the South African batsmen with an abrasive delivery in the first Test, Shaheen Shah Afridi eagerly awaited his turn.
It finally came on the fourth day of the contest after Pakistan’s spearhead had bowled in the early stages of the match but without any real result.
However, on the penultimate morning of the match, when the left-arm long delivery darted towards the pads of South Africa’s top batsman Tony de Dorzi to catch the lbw left-hander, it was evident that Shaheen was eager to take center stage.
The lanky pacer took three more wickets to blow the South African tail and finished with figures of 4-33.
Shan was all praise for the left-arm pacer and said: “He showed with his performance why he is counted among the best bowlers in the world today.”
The victory gives Pakistan an ideal start to the World Test Championship as they came last in the previous edition.
The second and final Test begins in Rawalpindi from Monday.
“The spinners came into play, the reverse swing helped the bowlers do their job today and the batsmen did quite well, but we still have a lot of challenges in the middle order,” Shan said.
“We lost 11-37 in two innings, which is not good, we have to get over that.”
‘First innings deficit was crucial’: South Africa captain
The defeat broke South Africa’s sequence of ten consecutive Test victories, culminating in the WTC title in June this year when they beat Australia at Lord’s.
Captain Aiden Markram said the first innings deficit of 109 was crucial.
“They (Pakistan) had a very good partnership in the first innings when we were five wickets down,” Markram said of Mohammad Rizwan-Salman Agha’s 163-run stand for the sixth wicket.
“We probably could have scored a few more runs in the first innings, but I’m proud of the way we fought.
“But we have to improve our game and come back better in the next game.”
He added that the draw was not so crucial to the final result.
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 spinning delivery.
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.
Tristan Stubbs struggled to cope with the hairpin turn and was at two when a premeditated reverse sweep in front of Noman landed safely in the hands of Salman Agha.
Brevis reached his second Test half-century with a six off Noman before becoming the spinner’s fourth victim.
Opener Rickleton’s tenacious resistance was broken by Sajid just before lunch for a brave 45.
Additional information from AFP
