By Peter Deeley
SOUTH Africa's No 10 batsman, the veteran spinner Pat Symcox, rescued his side from ignominy with a brash unbroken half-century including 13 boundaries off a weakened Pakistan attack on the delayed opening day of this first Test.
Symcox, with 37, and Mark Boucher, who reached fifty in his second Test, put on an unbroken 130 for the ninth wicket before bad light stopped play after South Africa plunged to 166 for eight.
To add insult to the indignities Pakistan suffered in the midweek mugging of two of their bowlers, the tourists were guilty here of almost criminal waste: the squandering of a wonderful opportunity to take control of the game.
They had South Africa on the rack until the afternoon, when four easy catches were put down. All this after acting Pakistan captain Amir Sohail mystifyingly chose to put the home side in on a true and bouncy Wanderers pitch.
South Africa returned from Australia 10 days ago but the way their top batsmen got themselves out, it looked as if they had only just stepped off the plane.
The match started a day late after two Pakistan players were assaulted near their Sandton hotel on Wednesday night. Following the street attack the tourists wanted a week's postponement but got a miserly one day to pull themselves together.
Off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq was feeling the effects of the neck injury sustained in the robbery and only bowled late in the day. The other victim, Mohammad Akram - who should have been the key strike bowler here - was in the pavilion with bruised ribs and hand and ankle bandaged.
In the circumstances their bowlers did valiantly early on. Waqar Younis, carrying a side strain, got rid of South Africa's own acting captain, Gary Kirsten, for three with a lifting delivery and shared six wickets with Mushtaq Ahmed.
Then Pakistan's frustration, as dominance slipped away, was writ large when young pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar clashed verbally with Symcox after the two had almost bumped shoulders.
They were made to shake hands on the field and match referee John Reid later warned both about their behaviour. Akhtar should not, by rights, be playing. He had fluid drained from a knee 48 hours before the start - another indication of how Pakistan have had to make do and mend.
Day 2: Symcox's 108 makes history and revives South Africa
By Peter Deeley in Johannesburg
THE remarkable renaissance of South Africa's Pat Symcox continued apace at the Wanderers yesterday as the veteran off-spinner became only the third No 10 batsman in Test history to score a century.
Now on the verge of 38, the bouncy six-footer seems to have discovered the secret of eternal youth, a personal elixir undiminished by his enjoyment of the good life - including cigarettes and beer.
When Symcox came to the crease late on the first day against a Pakistan attack weakened by the midweek muggings of two bowlers, South Africa were in trouble at 166 for eight.
The oldest man in the team, Symcox joined the youngest member, Mark Boucher, 21, and the pair put on 195, a record in all Test cricket for the ninth wicket, scored in 3.75 hours, before South Africa were finally dismissed for 364.
Pakistan were a troubled 106 for four at the close after this game, already surrounded by bizarre events, took another inexplicable turn.
A thunderstorm hit the area after lunch but, before it broke, play had been able to keep going in the gloom because of the floodlights, now officially sanctioned by International Cricket Council regulations.
The game eventually resumed, but only for 15 minutes, with a hostile Allan Donald bowling some short-pitched deliveries.
Ijaz Ahmed almost fell on to his stumps as he went back to hook the bowler for four, and his partner, Moin Khan, then complained to the umpires that the light was not good enough. This despite the fact that the floodlights were still on.
The umpires agreed that there was an element of danger for the batsmen and that was the end, with 31 overs lost in the day.
An official explained that floodlights were meant to enhance natural daylight, but the daylight itself was not good enough. ``As it gets darker, so the artificial lighting will get stronger and better,'' he added. Presumably by around midnight . . .
That left everybody somewhat in the dark but all agreeing that this was an issue on which more light must be thrown. It seemed that floodlights were not the panacea for the travails of bad light in Test cricket.
In their plight Pakistan were certainly happy to see play curtailed. They still needed 59 to avoid the follow-on, with little hope of them winning this game. Defeat would leave them in the unenviable position of being one down in a three-Test series.
Four missed catches - including two off Boucher - helped ruin Pakistan's early good work. With Saqlain Mushtaq suffering the after-effects of the neck injury he sustained in the street attack and bowling only 12 overs, Pakistan's four-man attack tired visibly.
It underlined the strength of their plea to South Africa to postpone the game for a week, instead of which they got one day's delay.
Symcox has a penchant for Pakistan. He scored fifties in the last meeting in Faisalabad in October and now backed it up with this hundred, which he greeted by jumping high and punching the air with his bat.
He hit 17 boundaries in his 108, which came off 157 balls, and it was quite in keeping with Symcox's forceful personality that, when eventually he was out to a cross-bat swipe, he grimaced and grumbled to himself all the way off.
Symcox recently complained when I wrote after the Faisalabad game that his improvement was all the more unexpected since the only memory of him on the 1994 South Africa tour of England was the ordinariness of his all-round cricket.
Now he had a simple explanation: ``There is nothing like the prospect of unemployment to scare you into bettering yourself.'' He said his batting had come on since he heard the words of Graeme Pollock: always hit the bad ball hard. Symcox said: ``What had been my undoing before was trying to hit the good one hard.''
You must go back 96 years for the last No 10 century-maker, R A Duff, of Australia.
Boucher, who was last out for 78 on his home Test debut, showed the promise of a true wicketkeeper- batsman. He then immediately took a diving catch to dismiss the acting Pakistan captain Amir Sohail, but it was not a good decision by umpire Cyril Mitchley. The ball clearly came off the left-hander's body.
Day 3: Azhar blazes 136
By Peter Deeley in Johannesburg
A second century off the South African bowling from all-rounder Azhar Mahmood in four Tests, this time a career-best 136, only reaffirmed the impression that Pakistan had unearthed another quality player.
Azhar, 23, learnt his cricket in what he called ``the rough streets'' of Rawalpindi and had almost no first-class experience coming to international level.
Hampshire, in their search for an overseas professional this summer, have been considering Azhar, though the club indicated yesterday that his signing was ``unlikely''.
Pakistan were struggling to avoid the follow-on at 112 for five yesterday when Azhar came in. Despite dubious light and short-pitched bowling, he carried the tail to 35 runs from South Africa's first-innings total.
He made only one error, on 95, edging Lance Klusener to first slip, but Daryll Cullinan put down the chance. Then, after reaching his hundred in four hours, Azhar hammered Klusener for a magnificent six high over extra-cover and saw South Africa's captain Gary Kirsten drop him in the deep off the next ball.
The South Africans put down five catches. In Adelaide three weeks ago they dropped 12 catches in the final Test, which allowed Australia to get away with a draw.
Day 5: South Africa's floodlight experiment is a failure
By Peter Deeley in Johannesburg
THIS star-crossed first Test ended fittingly on a farcical note as the umpires abandoned play because of poor visibility, with the Wanderers floodlights shining down at full power.
A game scheduled to begin on Friday the 13th (but which was, in fact, delayed until Saturday) always seemed to be asking for trouble. It had more than its full share, what with the mugging allegations by two Pakistan players snowballing into a police investigation into the goings-on at Club 69, a noted call-girl establishment.
The day's delay in starting the game, the cost of switching on the lights and the virtual loss of the final two days to rain and the light have cost the South African authorities millions of rand.
Worse, it has all done little to enhance the image of Test cricket in a country which is still learning to appreciate the five-day game. Contradictory as it may seem, the players found the red ball more difficult to see under the daytime lights because of the variation in the colour of the background seating.
Ironically, Ali Bacher, managing director of the home board, first persuaded ICC to agree to the floodlight experiment to overcome the loss of play through bad light. The first trial was at the Australia-South Africa Test in Sydney over the New Year and Bacher said the lights had worked there ``because it drops dark very quickly and you can see the red ball''.
This game was part of that ongoing evaluation but match referee John Reid said: ``The umpires frankly don't think it is going to work.'' Five times the game started under floodlights only for the players to walk off immediately. South Africa's captain, Gary Kirsten, said: ``If anything they made it worse in the daytime.''
Slow over rates added to the funereal mood. South Africa were fined 20 per cent of their match fees and Pakistan 65 per cent.
The mugging controversy hovered over the tourists until the end. Rashid Latif, the non-playing Pakistan captain, believed the allegations were an attempt to damage his team's morale.
Hansie Cronje returns after a knee operation to captain South Africa for the second Test in Durban in a week's time. Batsmen Daryll Cullinan and Herschelle Gibbs have been omitted from the party. Fanie de Villiers and Paul Adams are recalled and Western Province's Hylton Ackerman looks certain to make his debut.
SOUTH AFRICA (from) Cronje (capt), Kirsten, Bacher, Kallis, Hudson, Pollock, Boucher, Symcox, Klusener, Donald, Ackerman, Adams, de Villiers.