Asif Afridi finally gets his moment, 16 years and 90 deliveries in the making

At 38 years, Asif Afridi knows he doesn't have much time left in international cricket, but he doesn't let it hurry him. He came on to bowl in the 13th over of South Africa's innings, but struggled to make an early impact in Rawalpindi. Aiden Markram charged at him eighth ball and deposited him back over his head for six. If Asif wanted to show he wasn't just the relief bowler for when Sajid Khan or Noman Ali needed a break, he would have to prove it.

But Asif has spent more time than Markram, South Africa, or indeed any of his team-mates on these surfaces. He made his first-class debut in this very city 16 years ago, before any player on either side had played international cricket. The wickets would come, but they'd be no use if they came too late. And so he ensured what Markram had done to him would not happen again.

In the next over, he came around the wicket, and found a length that spat the ball up and away from Tristan Stubbs, who was only too grateful not to have settled in well enough to get too close. Soon after, he came around the wicket to the in-form, albeit newly arrived, Tony de Zorzi, spinning it away from off stump and clipping him above the knee roll. Pakistan, distracted by the appeal for a catch, did not review, though the technology suggested it would have given Asif his first Test wicket.

And still his patience didn't waver. He made sure he was finding the right lines, starving the South Africans of runs even if the wickets column remained barren for now. When Shan Masood finally took him off after an 11-over spell, he'd given away just 19 runs, the most economical bowler in the game.

"Asif bhai has so much experience, and we see how he uses it," Saud Shakeel said after the second day's play. "At one point he'd given away just 19 runs in 11. His control was indicative of someone who has played and had a lot of success in domestic cricket. When someone has built that base in domestic cricket, they don't find it too difficult at this level."

But as the gulf between domestic and international cricket widens in Pakistan, Asif would have been keenly aware of how he'd be perceived if he walked away without making an impact on surfaces designed to give fingerspinners assistance. He looked set to be condemned to that fate as the shadows lengthened and stumps loomed, but still Asif held his lines, kept to the plan that may well have been hatched when he made his debut in 2009. He came around the wicket to de Zorzi, in that zone where neither using his feet or the sweep were realistic options.

And then, in the 58th over, cricket finally threw him a bone. He found a dent in the strip and the ball swooped on de Zorzi, hitting him halfway up the shin. Even now, this sport found a way to keep him waiting for just that little bit longer, with the umpire denying his anguished appeal. Mercifully, Pakistan reviewed this time. Asif's wait would finally end among team-mates who mobbed him in congratulations, all appreciative of the journey he took, none quite able to understand just how bleak it can sometimes be.

But Asif made sure his solitary Test wicket couldn't just be put down to the bounce of a ball. Before the day was out, he had himself a picture-book orthodox spinner's dismissal, four balls after he had sent de Zorzi packing. Dewald Brevis accounted for the turn and played accordingly, but Asif had found just a little bit more. It kissed his outside edge, and first slip made no mistake.

Shakeel knows the feeling of falling to Asif's wiles. "I'm very happy for Asif bhai," he said. "It's very late but at least he's got to play Test cricket. When I play him in domestic cricket, I find it very difficult to handle him. In a Garde 2 match against FATA recently, I faced against Asif bhai and got out to him in the first innings. Whenever we play against him he causes us problems."

By the end of the day, that Markram six was little more than a footnote. Of the 90 deliveries he sent down, 74 had been dot balls, his final economy rate nearly half that of the next best bowler. But Asif had trusted his plan, guided by his blind belief it was the right way to find success. That quixotic idealism is often not a natural fit in Pakistan cricket, but on this afternoon in the Pindi twilight for a man who in the sunset of his career, it was.