Spin, struggle, and second chances for visitors in Pakistan

"My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." Test cricket in Pakistan is similar, but not in the way Forrest Gump intended.

Because you do know what you're going to get - more spin than any number of spinners could hope to extract. Turn is on tap in Pakistan, and it never runs dry. More like the runs dry up.

Even the Pakistanis struggle. Since Test cricket returned to the country in December 2019, after an interruption of more than 10 years caused by security fears, only in West Indies and Zimbabwe have the home side scored fewer runs per over than the 3.23 Pakistan have eked out in their own backyard.

Pakistan's batters have done better on South Africa's notoriously difficult pitches than on their own. They've played only two Tests there from December 2019, in December 2024 and January this year, but they scored at 3.81 runs an over. Of course, it takes more than quick runs or quicker runs than the opposition to win - Pakistan lost both of those matches.

Rather, how the Gump chocolate principle holds true in Pakistan is that you never know what you're going to get from individual players, particularly among the visitors.

Tony de Zorzi went there with a highest score of 31 in his previous nine innings, three of them against the hapless Zimbabweans. He made 104 in Lahore last week and 55 in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.

After the Lahore Test Tristan Stubbs didn't have a half-century to count among his most recent nine innings. He will resume on Wednesday needing 32 to reach his third century.

Dewald Brevis shovelled the first ball he faced in Lahore into midwicket's hands, made an imperious 54 off as many deliveries in the second innings, and had yet to get off the mark when he edged to slip in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. Second dig hundred loading?

Kyle Verreynne hasn't passed 36 in his five completed innings since he scored 100 - his third century in eight trips to the crease - against Pakistan at Newlands in January. He is 10 not out ...

What is it about Pakistan that might help under-performing batters from places where conditions are starkly different sort themselves out? Someone like Stubbs, who is all about the kind of aggression that would seem to make him a liability on slow, turning surfaces.

"It's important for a good player to be able adapt their game depending on the different countries they are in; to adapt their skill set to deal with what they're facing in the current conditions," Ashwell Prince, South Africa's batting coach, told a press conference. "[Stubbs] came off a disappointing first Test, and he's shown great character. He's clearer in his gameplan, in understanding his scoring opportunities.

"You're hoping that when the ball spins sharply it beats the outside edge, but credit to him - he's been pretty solid in defence and he's been positive in terms of his footwork; back and forth, using the crease. And when he's wanted to hit the ball he has shown commitment to taking the aggressive option."

What Prince wasn't interested in was nit-picking over the scoring rate: "I don't think it's necessary to go a lot quicker. The important thing is for every batter is to find his natural rhythm. What we try and emphasise is finding your tempo and marrying strong defence with good scoring opportunities. It's important to know where the singles are and to understand which boundary options to look at. But there isn't any rush with three days to go."

After two days in Rawalpindi, South Africa are four-down and 148 behind with Stubbs and Verreynne established at the crease and Senuran Muthusamy and Marco Jansen to come. They don't carry much of a tail: Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj. Nos. 9 and 10, have each scored two first-class centuries.

The visitors remain in the game thanks largely to Maharaj, who took all five Pakistan wickets that fell on Tuesday for 74 to dismiss them for 333 inside the first session. Maharaj bowled 42.4 of all the 113.4 overs - more than a third - sent down by an attack of six. His haul of 7/102 was the best by a South Africa bowler in Pakistan. He was so dominant that Muthusamy, who took 6/117 and 5/57 in Lahore, a match Maharaj missed with a groin strain, was granted just four overs.

Some of the chocolates in Forrest Gump's box had soft centres. Maharaj does not.