Proteas hungry to show resilience

TWO elements were vital for the Proteas to be in contention in this first Pakistan Test.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

One of the spin trio selected had to step in and fill the void left by the injured Keshav Maharaj. And the other was the batters needed to find a way to counter Pakistan's potent spin threat.

Towards the end of a second day in Lahore, the foundations were being laid to achieve those objectives with the Proteas moving to 174/2 in response to Pakistan's 378 all out. The home team had lost their last four wickets for just 26 runs, largely due to Senuran Muthasamy's 6/117 - the left-arm spinner's maiden Test 'Michelle'. "I've got a few in first-class cricket, but that was my first fiver in Test cricket.

"It's really special. It's something that's taken quite a while. It's a journey. It's been a long journey for me," he said.

"It's a different journey where I started off as an opening batter. And then started bowling a lot more moving into middle order batter and still bowling a lot.