A clinical win for Pakistan against South Africa at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. Pakistan won the first of the 2-match Test series swiftly, by 93 runs, for their well-rounded performance. With this win, the home team is now leading the match by 1-0; the next match is scheduled to be played on October 20 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. 

First Innings

Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first. They used the freshness of the wicket well enough to register a total of 378 runs in their first innings. Imam-ul-Haq (93), Salman Ali Agha (93), Shan Masood (76), and Mohammad Rizwan (75) batted well. But Noman Ali, a 39-year-old spinner, appeared as the decisive factor of the match. Ali was named Man of the Match for his 10-wicket haul. In the match innings, he took 6 wickets to go with the second innings' 4-wicket figure. 

South African batters faced a major hurdle to find runs on a spin-friendly wicket. In both innings, they struggled with their batting. Against Pakistan's 378, SA scored 269 runs in their first innings. Tony de Zorzi batted brilliantly and scored 104 runs under tough conditions. Ryan Rickelton was the only batter of the team who batted well in both phases of the match. After scoring 71 runs in the first innings, the opener notched 45 runs in the second. 

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Second Innings 

The match got more interesting during the second innings when the touring side bundled Pakistan out for only 167 runs. Senuran Muthusamy grabbed 5 wickets, and Simon Harmer grabbed 4 wickets. South Africa had to score 277 runs to win the match. 

The target was not hard to chase, but the wicket was. In addition, the spin bowling of Noman Ali made batting very challenging on the 4th day, when the deck dried up more. Noman took 4, along with Shaheen Afridi, who clinched 4 more wickets to confirm Pakistan's victory over the World Test Championship (WTC) winning team. Dewald Brevis played a brilliant counter-attacking half century, but that was not enough to meet the target. South Africa got only 183 runs; Pakistan won by 93 runs.