Brilliant Ryan Rickelton and ‘emotional’ Kyle Verreynne put Pakistan to the sword with the bat

Rickelton celebrates reaching his maiden Test double century. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)

4 Jan 2025

Pakistan 64 for 3 (Babar 31*, Ghulam 12, Rabada 2-9) trail South Africa 615 (Rickelton 259, Verreynne 100, Jansen 62, Abbas 3-94) by 551 runs.

Ryan Rickelton smashed the second highest individual score at Newlands after obliterating the Pakistani bowlers, smacking a career-best double century of 259.

It was the first double-century by a South African batter since Hashim Amla’s 201 against England in 2016, which also happened in Cape Town.

Rickelton’s 10 hour and 15-minute marathon innings started the first ball of the first session on day one, and ended just before tea time on day two.

Opening the batting for the first time in his Test career, Rickelton’s 29 fours all came playing textbook cricket shots along the carpet while the three sixes he struck were brutally dispatched well over the boundary ropes and into the stands.

The innings by the 28-year-old was chanceless for 342 deliveries until it wasn’t. With the 343rd ball he had faced when he skyed a Mir Hamza delivery, attempting his first cross-bat slog of his innings. He was caught by Mohammad Abbas who was three-quarters in at the long-on boundary.

Rickelton shared a dominating 148-run sixth-wicket stand with Kyle Verreynne.

The number seven was instrumental in providing the batting innings a re-injection of momentum after the early demise of David Bedingham (five off 19) on day two.

Another big stand

Verreynne had no problems negotiating the docile pitch and weary bowlers when he walked onto his home wicket, scoring 100 runs off 147 deliveries.

The wicketkeeper-batter was particularly ruthless on anything short, smashing five sixes on his way to his fourth career-century, most of which landed in the crowd at the square boundary at the Railway Stand.

An 'emotional' Kyle Verreynne celebrated his first Test century in front of his family. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)

It was when he tried to smack one to the other square boundary at the Oaks grass embankment, attempting to slog-sweep Salman Ali Agha, that he was undone, caught on the squareleg boundary by Aamer Jamal.

“It’s quite special. I started getting a bit emotional around lunchtime when I was on 70-odd,” Verreynne said after the day’s play.

“You have a feeling [when] things are going well that you might get there. It’s the first time my mom’s been here to watch me get a Test hundred. I started feeling a bit emotional.

“It’s probably why I got out after I got a hundred because I was so emotionally drained, but it’s incredibly special.

“It’s probably not one of the more important ones that I’ve scored from a team perspective because we were scoring so many runs already anyway, but from a personal point of view, just having my mom and brother here was really special for me.”

Read more: Rickelton-Bavuma centuries put South Africa on top in high-scoring Day 1 against Pakistan

The partnership between Verreynne and Rickelton batted Pakistan out of the game, taking the score from 471 for six to 557 for seven.

“It’s really nice batting with him out there,” Verreynne said about spending time in the middle with Rickelton. “I thought he’d be so tired because he batted the whole of yesterday and quite a lot of today.

“But when I walked out to bat with him he was just so calm it just felt like he could do this for ages, and that put me at ease.

“I wasn’t too sure how to go about it, if I needed to be a bit more aggressive or bat normally, but the calmness that he brought to the partnership was really good.”

Proteas lethal strike bowler Kagiso Rabada snapped up two early wickets to leave Pakistan in trouble (Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)

Late wickets

South Africa’s lower order added to Pakistan’s miserable day, smashing them around the picturesque Newlands Cricket Ground. Marco Jansen (62 off 54) scored his third career-half century while Keshav Maharaj was in the runs as well, bludgeoning 40 runs off 35 balls.

Together they smoked five sixes and 12 fours.

South Africa were eventually bowled out for 615, the first time the team has passed 600 since 2016, the same match in which Amla had struck his double century.

South Africa were allowed an hour and a half to bowl at the fatigued Pakistani batters.

Kagiso Rabada, who had his feet up for a day and a half, got into his work quickly, bowling immaculate lines and lengths up front.

Rickelton celebrates reaching his maiden Test double century. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)

He sent Pakistan skipper Shan Masood (two off six) back to the dressing room in the first over, as well as star batter from the previous Test match at SuperSport Park, Saud Shakeel (zero off six), packing in the same fashion.

Read more: Maphaka to make Test debut at Newlands as Bavuma bats away criticism of Proteas’ spot in WTC final

Both southpaws drove hard at full length away swinging deliveries, which found their edge, and was caught by Bedingham at first slip.

Kamran Ghulam, looked at sea trying to play left-armer Jansen, who came around the wicket, chopping on a good length delivery in which he neither got forward nor back to.

Pakistan’s most experienced batters — Mohammad Rizwan (nine off 28), who stood crouched behind the stumps for 141.3 overs while fielding, and Babar Azam (31 off 77) — were at the crease at stumps and looked more comfortable on the flat wicket than any of the side’s other batters.

Pakistan’s chances for extracting a result that is anything but a loss in the Test match at Newlands are extremely slim, with three more days of cricket to attempt to bat out for a draw and the team effectively already an extra wicket down in each innings after opener Saim Ayub fractured his ankle while fielding early on day one. DM

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Another big stand

Late wickets