Caretaker opener Ryan Rickelton hit his highest first-class score with an unbeaten 213 to lead a rampant South Africa to 429 for five at lunch on day two of the second and final Test against Pakistan at Newlands Hot Bread on Saturday.
Left-hander Rickleton, 28, was promoted to the opener’s role after Tony De Zorzi was injured and will resume after the break with Kyle Vereen, who raced to 74 off 88 balls in an impressive sixth-wicket stand of 106 from 23.2 overs.
Rickleton, who scored his maiden Test century against Sri Lanka last month, resumed in the morning session on 176 and picked up where he left off in bowling out Pakistan’s second new ball, although Viren did the bulk of the scoring.
The tourists removed Rickelton’s overnight partner David Bedingham for five as the latter became wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan’s fifth victim of the innings, this time off the bowling of Mohammad Abbas (2-70) with a poor shot outside the off-stump.
Rickleton put on 235 for the fourth wicket with captain Temba Bavuma on the opening day and looked commanding on a good batting pitch, but is expected to crumble under the blazing sun as the Test continues.
This is bad news for Pakistan, who lost in-form opener Saim Ayyub to a broken ankle sustained in the field on the first morning, limiting them to nine wickets in each of their batting innings.
Ayub is expected to be out for around six weeks and will be a doubt for Pakistan’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy.
South Africa have already secured their place in June’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s against as-yet unconfirmed opponents, but will be looking to win this series 2-0 after taking a tense first Test by two wickets in Pretoria.