Ultimately, Pakistan's overnight hope was built on a bed of straw. South Africa did not even need to huff or puff particularly hard to blow the house down. It took them five balls to dismiss an ostensibly back-to-form Babar Azam, nine runs to take four wickets that put the conclusion beyond doubt, and one session to dispatch the paltry 68 they had been set for victory. Along the way, Simon Harmer took six wickets to take his tally to exactly 1000 first-class wickets, becoming the fourth South African to do so.

It took South Africa to a thumping eight-wicket series-levelling win, their first in their defence of the World Test Championship title. For Pakistan, it is their first home defeat after winning the toss since they resorted to spin-friendly tracks at home, their recent third innings malaise coming back to haunt them in its full splendour. Babar's little tickle into the onside off the day's second ball got him to a first home Test half-century since 2022, but what should have been the bedrock of his innings was instead its culmination point.

Three balls later, he stepped back into his crease off a similar, gentle off spinner, but this one kept slightly low, and rapped him just below the knee roll to begin Pakistan's slide. A superb Harmer kept the pressure on, but there was assistance aplenty from a Pakistan side that immediately began to go to pieces. Harmer gave Rizwan generous flight, who stretched out well beyond his crease try and get to the pitch to defend. Instead, he got an inside edge onto the pad, which looped up to Tony de Zorzi at short leg, and Harmer went to 999.

The four-figure dismissal was all about Harmer, though, and a microcosm of what has made him so successful for so long. He went around the wicket to Noman Ali, flighting it well and landing on a sixpence into some of the footmarks the left-arm bowlers have created. It spat up and away from Noman, kissing the outside edge on its way into Kyle Verreynne's hands. Harmer threw his head up into the sky and let out a roar to rouse any part of Pindi that might still have been asleep. But Pakistan kept hoisting themselves by their own petard.

Shaheen Shah Afridi and Salman Agha worked themselves up into calling for a run, taking on Ryan Rickelton who dived forward to effect a direct hit that sent Shaheen on his way, and Pakistan had gone from 105 for 5 to 105 for 8 - yet another middle and lower order collapse in a series they have been sprinkled like confetti. At the other end stood Agha, not so much like a rock of resistance as a young oak waiting to be felled. Maharaj duly did the honours in his first over, the arm ball cutting Agha in half as he chopped back on.

Sajid Khan tried to take him on the following over, only to find himself well adrift of his crease for Verreynne to do the honours. Pakistan turned immediately to spin, but there was no intimidating South Africa with a target this shallow. They were off and away with an Aiden Markram mow across the line for four, and Rickelton began to get his kicks in shortly after. Pakistan kept recycling through some combination of their three finger spinners, and South Africa kept putting them away for four, speeding towards the target as lunch approached.

Noman got Pakistan the dubious consolation prize of a late couple of wickets when South Africa's target was in single digits. Markram was trapped in front as he went for another one of his productive sweeps that had fetched him six of his eight fours in the innings, and found Tristan Stubbs' outside edge for a duck three balls later. But Rickelton made the ignominy official with a whack over long-off for six in the following over.

After the previous Test, Pakistan captain Shan Masood had talked about how Pakistan would look to play if they lost the toss to try and stay competitive. South Africa showed they had been listening carefully, and across these four days, executed that plan to perfection.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)