Partnerships key to Proteas’ record chase in Lahore, says batter De Zorzi

WORLD champions Proteas will need to make history in Lahore if they are to extend their 10-match unbeaten streak.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

No team has scored more than the 277 the visitors require for victory at the Gaddafi Stadium. It was reduced to 226 when stumps were drawn on the third evening, but captain Aiden Markram and Wiaan Mulder are already walking casualties.

Both were victims of that wily old customer, Noman Ali, who added the two scalps to his six-for earlier in the day that had reduced the Proteas’ first innings to 269 - a deficit of 109 runs.

The veteran left-arm will pose the premier threat again on a wearing sharp-turning surface, and the likes of Ryan Rickelton and first innings centurion Tony de Zorzi, who are the unbeaten batters at the crease, will need not only a rock-solid technique but also their fair share of luck if the Proteas are to even get close to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Rickelton has already had some good fortune, dropped on 26 at short-leg shortly before the close, while De Zorzi had a four-leaf clover in his pocket during the early stages of his first-innings century.