Kagiso Rabada says resilience is the key to South Africa’s success as they close in on a seventh successive home series win.

The Proteas battled hard on day three, which was much needed after an impressive fightback from the Pakistan batsmen.

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Pakistan were 177-3 at tea, but could only manage 117 in the final session.

The last half-hour was a dramatic spiral, as whirling as the Newlands wind, that saw two dropped catches and a no-ball wicket. 

‘Nothing like that has ever happened,’ said Kagiso Rabada about the final 30 minutes. ‘Dale was bowling from a quarter run up and then the dramatic no-ball. Then for all of that to happen, we don’t come out to bat.

‘The captain and the coach made the decision [not to come out to bat]. They felt that coming out for five overs to try and get 41 runs is not worth it.

‘So we will just come tomorrow and knock them off.’

Rabada highlighted the Proteas bowlers’ resilience as key to their powerful performance.

‘We showed good resilience in our batting, we showed good resilience in our bowling,’ he added. ‘Even though the run rate shot up when Asad Shafiq started playing shots and scoring quickly, that’s where we needed to show resilience.

‘If you use the term outlast, that’s when we needed to outlast them by not breaking and waiting for that breakthrough.

‘Once it came, we were back in the game. It’s very hard to get in on this wicket and that’s something that Faf [du Plessis] kept reminding us of.’

Photo: Shaun Roy/Gallo Images