South Africa ease to opening win against Pakistan

First Test, Centurion, day five: South Africa 417 & 199-3 bt Pakistan 313 & 302 by seven wickets
Scorecard

Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis hit fifties to guide South Africa to a seven-wicket victory over Pakistan on the last afternoon of the first Test.

After rain delayed play at Centurion by 45 minutes, night-watchman Paul Harris drove Mohammad Asif to cover for seven.

That left the hosts 80-3, chasing 199, but Amla (64) and Kallis (60) added an unbroken 119 to prevent further alarm.

Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria found some sharp turn but, despite some invariable bounce, the seamers proved ineffective.

The second of three Tests starts in Port Elizabeth on Friday, when Pakistan will have prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf and paceman Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar available.

They will hope to improve on a below-par effort in this game, even though they were still in with a chance when play eventually began on day five.

Asif improved their prospects when he drew Harris into droving uppishly to Faisal Iqbal.

Amla then edged just beyond the leaping Mohammad Hafeez's fingertips at gully.

But things then settled down and, despite the ball occasionally keeping low, Amla and Kallis encountered few difficulties in the afternoon.

The fifty partnership came up off 110 balls when Amla crashed a wide long-hop from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan for four before both batsmen drove part-time off-spinner Hafeez beautifully for boundaries in the same over.

Amla, who came into this game under some pressure, clipped Shahid Nazir off his pads to complete his second fifty of the game off 137 balls.

With the runs flowing, wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal twice conceded four byes off poorly directed Kaneria deliveries and Kallis hammered another through the off-side as he reached his half-century off 102 balls.

A comprehensive victory was sealed shortly afterwards with 40 minutes to go before the tea break.