Twitter Reactions: Quinton de Kock stars for the Proteas; Pakistan inching towards the target

The third Test between South Africa and Pakistan is progressing forward at a great pace. Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock was the star performer of the day. With the fourth innings of the game already on, a result is guaranteed. The visitors have been set a gigantic target of 381 runs and are inching towards the target. However, they are still miles away and need a massive partnership if they are to pull off a victory.

South Africa went into the third day with an overnight score of 135/5 in their second innings. Hashim Amla and De Kock who were already bossing around on the second day took guard to start the proceedings. This duo ended up frustrating the Pakistani bowlers and they literally extracted nothing out of the pitch. Amla was the first to perish after a well-made 71.

The ball hit one of the cracks on the pitch and exploded before it kissed his glove and carried to the wicketkeeper. Though, QDK was going strong from one end. With some support from the bowlers, he stitched together some good partnerships. His measured aggression mixed with a bit of caution helped him pile up the big runs. The left-hander notched up his fourth century in Tests with this one coming nearly after two years.

De Kock scored a breezy 129 which came off 138 balls. He found the fielder at deep mid-wicket as he tried to lift one over the fence off the bowling of Shadab Khan. Wickets fell quickly once he perished and South Africa was ultimately bowled out for 303.

The top three Pakistan batsmen throw away the good starts

Pakistan batsmen have taken quite a while to do well in South African conditions. Their effort on this day was surely their best on this tour so far. The openers, for the first time on this tour, added more than 50 runs together. It was all going strong until Dale Steyn returned for his second spell. He breathed fire and kept the batsmen on their toes. In quick succession, he sent back both Imam-ul-Haq and Shan Masood after they scored 35 and 37 runs respectively.

Azhar Ali had a fair share of luck in his brief stay out there in the middle. But, the right-hander ran out of luck as Duanne Olivier found an edge through to the wicketkeeper after Ali scored 15 runs. Since then, Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam joined hands and looked in complete control. They added an unbeaten 49 runs and are going strong.

Pakistan is inching towards the target one run after other but is still 228 runs far. It will take quite a herculean task for them to get there and all they have is seven wickets in hand. It is highly likely that the winner of the game will be decided on the fourth day itself.

Twitterati erupted for Quinton de Kock’s fourth Test century. He was flooded with wishes and there was a lot of praise for Hashim Amla as well. Some felt bad for a luckless Dale Steyn who bowled extremely well on the day.

Here is how Twitterati reacted:

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