South Africa and Pakistan were engaged in a feisty battle of bat and ball in the first Test of the three-match series in Centurion.

The home side went 1-0 up with a six-wicket win on the third day as they wrapped up the match just at the stroke of tea break.

We bring you the three talking points from the first Test, where Pakistan just came short on a pitch where there a lot of assistance for pacers.

Masood showing worth of domestic cricket

It is often being said that Pakistan’s domestic cricket is not up to the standard and that it has never produced quality players who can represent the team at the international level. However, Shan Masood’s gutsy performance in the second innings — where he looked the best of the lot and scored a brilliant 65 — shows that narrative is not correct. The selection committee should give top performers in the domestic circuit more chances to represent the Green Caps in the international arena.

Duanne Olivier is here to stay

Pakistan cricket team historically, time and again, have been labelled as a unit who provides young bowlers a breakthrough in their career. Many felt the same when Duanne Olivier, in the presence of Kagiso Rabada and Dale Steyn, became the real destroyer in both innings.

For many it came as a surprise, but in reality it shouldn’t be one. Olivier was the top performer in the recently concluded Mzansi Super League (MSL) and already has more than 300 wickets in first-class cricket. That was not it as he already has 17 wickets to his name in five Tests before coming into this match, and his performance should not surprise anyone.

With Steyn and Vernon Philanders’ careers coming to an end, Olivier’s performance must give the team management a lot of optimism as he, alongside Randa and Lungi Ngidi can form a pace attack which can represent Proteas for a long time in the future.

Sarfraz might lose captaincy, but who will replace him?

Wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed started this series with uncertainty surrounding his captaincy in the five-day format. And to make matters worse for the Karachi-born, defeat in Centurion and pair in both innings has left a lot of question marks, not only on his captaincy in the longest format of the game but also regarding his place in the playing eleven.

With two more matches to go, Sarfraz still has a chance to redeem himself both as a captain and as a wicketkeeper-batsman, but looking at the team’s current performance, it is hard to imagine the team will bounce back and win at least one of the two remaining match and draw the other one.

But then comes the real question, if Sarfraz is removed as the captain after this series, who will actually replace him? And we know the answer as much as you do. Most of the team is consist of youngsters who don’t even have the experience of playing 20 Tests in their career. Two seniors in this team who look like candidates to replace Sarfraz as the captain are Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq, but both of them are not in great touch either and have lost their wicket at crucial junctures.

With such limited options available for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to choose from, it will be interesting to see whether Sarfraz will be removed or given more time to show what he is capable of in the longest format of the game.