South Africa versus Pakistan: South Africa beat Pakistan by 9 wickets to go 2-0 up 

South Africa beat Pakistan in the second Test to seal the three-match series.

The hosts defeated Pakistan by 9 wickets at Newlands, Cape Town on Sunday. Set the target of 41 runs to win, the hosts had no niggles chasing it down.

To delay the inevitable, Mohammad Abbas took the wicket of Theunis de Bruyn for 4 runs. Hashim Amla was forced to retire as he was hurt by a Mohammad Aamir ball. Dean Elgar and South African captain Faf du Plessis completed the remaining chase with ease winning without further damage.

It was a dominating performance by hosts who outplayed their opponents in all departments. Dean Elgar remained not out on 24.

Earlier, the home captain du Plessis had won the toss and decided to field first. The South African pace bowling department did not allow the Pakistani batsmen to score runs and bowled them out for 177 runs in their first innings.

Despite initially struggling for form and rhythm, du Plessis scored a brilliant century, Temba Bavuma's 75, and Quinton de Kock's 59 helped the hosts post a massive total of 431 runs in the first innings.

In spite of a much better performance by Pakistani batsmen in the second innings, South Africa bowled out Pakistan for 294 runs. Front-line fast bowlers Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada took 4 wickets each.

For Pakistan, captain Sarfraz Ahmed and Shan Masood provided the resistance in the first innings. While bowling, Mohammad Aamir and Shaheen Shah Afridi took 4 wickets each. Despite their bowling efforts, Pakistan conceded a lead of 254 runs in the first innings.

Shan Masood, Babar Azam, and Asad Shafiq made good contributions for Pakistan in the second innings but lacked support from the others, eventually mustered a second innings lead of only 40, an excess that was never going to win them the match.

With this win, South Africa took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. The third and final Test match will be played from 11th January at Johannesburg.