Hello everyone and a warm welcome to the New Year's Test in Cape Town. We witnessed a cracking Test match in Centurion which resulted in South Africa entering the final of the WTC and Pakistan having to wait longer for their first Test series win in SA. What's in store here? Well the last time Cape Town hosted a Test (South Africa vs India in 2024).

It got over in two days and turned out to become the shortest completed Test match (642 deliveries). Pakistan have now lost eight consecutive Tests in South Africa. They came so close to break that streak despite not being at their best with the bat thanks to their pacers. It'll be interesting to see if they make any changes to their XI especially with their opponents picking a frontline spinner. South Africa have won the toss and have opted to bat.

Bavuma: We are going to bat. Wicket looks a bit drier than we are accustomed to expect it to break up and probably assist the spinners. It's pretty hot as well. We have had time to warp around what we have achieved. We know what lies ahead for us. The preparations for this Test has been the priority. It's the last game of the series we'd like to finish off on a good note. We'll try to play our best cricket. Three changes. Iqbal Sports Live. Iqbal Sports. Km Punk Live.

Masood: Less grass than usual. We wanted to have a bowl. The nature of this ground is there's something in it for the bowlers in the first session. We've seen quite a number of wickets fall the target would be that. You just have to weigh it up against is it going to that dry that it goes to the fifth day and spin comes in so both teams got what they wanted to do.

It's another opportunity to do that (achieve the goals). If we learn from that we'll build on a lot of good stuff that we did. A lot of things went right good team performances and also some standout individual performances and you want them to end up in the winning side. Naseem Shah is resting Mir Hamza comes in. Like South Africa we want to have four seamers. Seam will play a big role. Km Punk. Crictalks Live. Crictalks. By The Way Live. By The Way.

Pitch Report | Mike Haysman and Vernon Philander: "This is a good toss to win. The south-easterm wind is blowing. There are a lot of bare patches the groundsman has taken a lot of grass off. It might be on the slower side. There are a few cracks visible and they'll come into play on day three four and five with the sun baking down on this surface. It's a really good surface runs on the board are going to be vital. Spinners will come into play. It'll dry pretty fast. These bare patches might loosen up. There'll always be something in it for the pacers there'll always be some moisture in the first hour."

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