Noman Ali stars as Pakistan win first South Africa Test by 93 runs
- Last updated: October 15, 2025 | 16:21
Left-arm spinner Noman Ali was South Africa's chief tormentor as Pakistan won a gripping first Test by 93 runs in Lahore on Wednesday.
Set a daunting 277-run target for victory, the visitors and World Test champions were bowled out for 183 in the afternoon session on day four.
Man of the match Noman finished with 4-79 and 10-191 in the match for his third haul of ten wickets or more in Tests.
With the weary Gaddafi Stadium pitch taking sharp turn and low bounce, the 39-year-old exploited the conditions well despite a stubborn 73-run stand between Dewald Brevis and Ryan Rickelton in the morning.
In all, spinners from both sides took 34 wickets, with just six going to fast bowlers.
South African left-armer Senuran Muthusamy took 11-174 in the match.
Pakistan made 378 in their first innings, with South Africa scoring 269 in reply.
On a deteriorating surface, the hosts collapsed in their second-innings 167 but it proved enough.
"We won the Test match and it's gone exactly to plan," said Shan Masood, who now has four wins in 13 Tests as captain, with nine losses.
On Wednesday, with the tourists 137-6 at lunch the writing was very much on the wall, then Sajid Khan dismissed Muthusamy for six soon after the break.
Pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed Kyle Verreynne (19), Prenelan Subrayen (eight) and Kagiso Rabada (nought) to finish with 4-33.
The victory gives Pakistan an ideal start to the World Test Championship (WTC), having come last in the previous edition.
The second and final Test starts in Rawalpindi from Monday.
"The spinners came into play, reverse swing helped the bowlers do their job today and the batters did well enough, but we still have a lot of challenges in the middle order," said Masood. "We lost 11-37 over the course of two innings, which is not good, we must overcome that."
South Africa proud in defeat
The defeat broke South Africa's sequence of ten straight Test wins, culminating in the WTC title in June this year when they beat Australia at Lord's.
Skipper Aiden Markram said the first-innings deficit of 109 was crucial.
"They (Pakistan) had a really good partnership in the first innings when we had them five wickets down," he said Markram of a Mohammad Rizwan-Salman Agha stand of 163 runs for the sixth wicket.
"We probably could have scored a few more runs in the first innings but I am proud of the way we fought.
"But we need to clean up our game and come back better in the next match."
Brevis took the fight to the Pakistan spinners in the morning and had reached an aggressive career-best 54, with six fours and two sixes, when Noman bowled him with a sharply turning delivery.
Pakistan had struck in the first over of the day through fast bowler Shaheen, who trapped Tony de Zorzi for 16 without any addition to the overnight total of 51-2.
Tristan Stubbs struggled to cope with the sharp turn and was on two when a premeditated reverse sweep off Noman safely landed in Salman Agha's hands.
Brevis reached his second Test half-century with a six off Noman before becoming the spinner's fourth victim.
Opener Rickleton's dogged resistance was broken by Sajid just before lunch for a gritty 45.
Agence France-Presse